Geneva drove down from Spokane, I came from Harrisburg, and we met at an Airbnb in Portland in a unique community called Ladd’s Addition that was platted in a wagon wheel shape in the late 1800s and planted generously in elms and roses. Our house was more than 100 years old, solid and welcoming, with a large front porch and dark wood floors that creaked.
Technically she is an ex-sister-in-law, no longer married to my oldest brother, but Geneva still feels like family, and we have a lot in common. She knows my history, my siblings, my children. We overlapped for two years at a church in Hubbard, Oregon, and we know many of the same people in the spiderwebbed network of Mennonites in Oregon that significantly shaped both of our lives.
For three days, we drank tea, shopped at Goodwill and quirky little shops, ate the fruit we brought along, read books, rested and journaled…