My Maine friend Jean

A few years ago during a day trip to Maine my friend Valerie and I stopped for lunch at McDonald’s in Wells, Maine. I got my food and turned to find a place to sit and a woman was motioning to me to come over to her. I turned around thinking she meant someone behind me but she meant me. I walked over to her and she commented on my “beautiful red hair” and invited me to join her. When my friend got her food she saw me sitting with these two old women and wondered what was going on. The four of us visited and became instant friends. The women were Jean and Julie.

[This picture was taken the day we met--Jean on the left, Julie on the right]

We sat and talked for over and hour about our lives and it was a delightful experience. Jean had been a widow for 25+ years. She told us about meeting her husband in Connecticut; he crossed a crowded dance floor to ask her to dance! She moved to Connecticut from Lithuania when she was a young child, speaking no English. I went back to visit Jean a number of times (we always met at the Maine Diner for lunch and then we’d go to McDonald’s for the dollar ice cream cone) and introduced her to some of my friends. One of my friends asked her if she had a boyfriend and she replied that she wouldn’t give any of her male friends a break. Another friend asked her if she got lonely and I will never forget her reply. She tapped her chest twice and said, “I like me.” She was content with her life; doing volunteer work, driving to the beach every day, going to movies and of course her daily visits to McDonald’s (there was a group of friends that met there every day!). A few days before Christmas in 2004 I received a letter from Julie informing me that Jean was in the hospital in Wells. I called her and she told me that her family was moving her to a senior citizen facility in Wisconsin, near her son. I drove to Maine on Christmas day that year to spend some time with her. She gave me a ceramic snowman that day that has a special place on a shelf in my kitchen. Since then we’ve been corresponding through letters. Even after a stroke she would write letters. She always told me what interesting things she was doing and that she missed Maine. I hadn’t heard from her in the last few months and wondered if she was doing OK and today I received a letter from her daughter-in-law that Jean died on January 10^th. I’m so glad that Jean motioned to me that day at the McDonald’s in Wells, Maine. I made a friend that enriched my life.