Ran into an old T tonight . . .

I was at a church synod function where multiple churches were celebrating and supporting a mission church in our area, and lo and behold if my 2nd therapist didn't show up. He was there as one of the pastors who helped get this mission started some 20 some-odd years ago. I hadn't seen or even spoken to him in about 20 years I guess as he had taken a pastoral call in another state.

It was fun to get caught up. Last time he saw me, I only had one son, and his sons were just graduating from high school. We had LOTS of catching up to do to say the least. We sat together with some other old church friends and spent the evening just chatting and looking at pictures. He was the usual bubbly person I remembered, and he commented on how much happier and confident I appeared now.

It was nice to be able to just greet him as an old friend and simply enjoy the visit. Definitely was a pleasant surprise to see him.

I'm glad you enjoyed the visit!

Thanks. It was fun. He's older and grayer (but then, so am I). It was funny when we spotted each other. We both kind of did a double-take, then gasped, then had the greatest big bear hug. It was a pretty joyful moment for both of us. I think of him often with great fondness, but I never expected to run into him. We live thousands of miles apart now. It was just one of those completely pleasant surprises. There were quite a few other blasts from the past there tonight, too, so it was like an old church reunion. He's recently retired and is just enjoying his wife and traveling and grandkids. Just what I would have expected for him. He was and is a truly loving, gracious person.

What a wonderful blessing for the both of you!

How many sons do you have now?

I clicked on this thread to make sure you weren't driving at the time.

LOL!!! Is "ran into" one of those Southern colloquialisms that we Southerners don't realize are unique to us? Funny.

I have 3 sons, and they are now 26, 20, and 16. I think the oldest was probably 5 when he left. Seems like I had just found out I was pregnant with my second when T moved if my memory serves me right.

That's great! If I ever ran into an old T (or current T) I would probably run in the other direction. LOL

I've never had that reaction to running into therapists, etc. For one, I'm a teacher and have seen my students have that reaction when they run into me (kind of like -- Mrs. A actually goes to the grocery store? Wow!), but more often they are happy to see me and we take a few minutes to talk. For another, this particular therapist was my pastor long before we started doing therapy, so we had worked together on church projects, I'd attended his classes, heard his sermons, etc. Encountering him outside the context of our therapy sessions was very normal and common and never bothered me even after I started seeing him as my therapist. So we were friends and fellow church members all along which is probably more the context in which we were visiting last night. We spoke very little about our time in therapy; fortunately, that era has passed for me and I didn't really feel the need or desire to rehash it last night. We were just enjoying catching up on our personal lives/family, etc. since we had last seen each other.