Unlikely People

Sometimes, the most unlikely people sneak into your life and steal your heart. That person for me was my dear friend Mr. Caldwell. Though we had absolutely nothing in common, we made each other laugh and, eventually, were able to talk freely to one another about all subjects.

Mr. Caldwell really never got past that I did not want to “take some of that fat back” home with me to cook with. Nor did he grasp that I had no special way to cook okra, and, in fact, I really never thought of okra until I moved to North Carolina. Quite honestly, when we first met, I don’t even think either of us really understood what the other one was saying!

Actually, there is one thing in our backgrounds that Mr. Caldwell and I did share in common – Ink. Aside from being a farmer, Mr. Caldwell was a production manager at a commercial ink company. As a professional fine art printmaker, I am acquainted with ink and was interested to hear about other types of ink.

I talked about Mr. Caldwell all of the time to my friends and family. Someone asked what he called me and I thought about how he changed his way of addressing me over the eight years we were friends. In fact, I think the various ways he addressed me pretty much sums up the progression of our friendship. So here it goes: Miss Podolsky ~ Miss Diane ~ Diane ~ Honey Child and finally: You Little Runt! (exclamation mark added because it was always said with emphasis). I guess it is a good place to point out that I am barely five feet tall and Mr. Caldwell stood at 6 feet 6 inches.

Mr. Caldwell has only been gone a short while. The turnout at his 95th birthday party and his too soon after funeral was a testament to how much he was loved by so many people. So below are a few photographs of my dear friend.