I like hearing stories about everyone's imaginary friends. We are a creative bunch!

During the most lonely years of my marriage, I had an imaginary friend. He was a guy with red hair, younger than I am, and I would usually talk to him when I was alone in the car and driving somewhere. I imagined that he was a visitor from out of town and I would tell him all the things we could do together in the area and all the sights he could see. I would explain about the local sights as we drove through town and the countryside. Once we stopped at a waterfall along the side of the road because I thought he might like to see it. I would make CDs with a lot of my favorite songs and play them in the car for him and tell him why I liked the songs--what meaning they had for me or maybe just that I liked the melody. I kept the passenger side of the front seat open for him--didn't pile junk there--so he was always free to ride along. I never talked to him about "serious" or unpleasant stuff--I think I had enough of that in real life. I was just trying to be a gracious hostess and show off my part of the world to him, make his visit a pleasant one, etc. I enjoyed our time together.

I think I did this just because I was very lonely. I never had any doubt that he was made-up. When I began making progress on getting my life in order and exiting my lonely marriage, I didn't need him anymore and he stopped going on drives with me. He was like a companion during that awful "stuck" phase of my life.