Dave and I have a nice friendship with a JW couple from our teen years. All of us are now pushing 60 or in the 60's. The wife is an old friend of mine from childhood, the daughter of a very well known elder in our area who passed away a few years ago, and her husband is a man we all met in our late teens, when he was studying. He is very intellectual and had a hard time finally accepting "the truth" because of his education. He is a bit older than the rest of us. Dave and I were married when they got engaged and were with them the night he proposed back in 1968. This weekend is their wedding anniversary (34 years) and they invited us to celebrate with them. They never had children, because "the end is coming". I've wondered if they regret that, but she always worked for American Airlines and they have traveled all over the world and back, and never get enough travel. Children would have stifled that.
We met them last night for dinner and, as usual, we closed the restaurant. We always have so much to talk about. It was a wonderful evening. They are still somewhat active but are so liberal about the JW stuff that it's hard to really trust them. The wife told me on the way to our cars, that she hasn't been in field service in years and tells the elders to "back off, this is personal" when they talk to her about it. I know they aren't regular meeting attenders, but they still believe. But..............last night they asked so many questions and at one point, the husband leaned in to the conversation, and his body language was so open to what Dave was talking about. His wife is open to everything, and is very well read so very fun to talk to. Dave told her we might be disassociated the next time we plan to get together, and she laughed and said her friends are too precious to let something like that stop her. Wow, I was stunned.
She said she has always wondered about the Ray Franz incident and what really happened there. I said "read his book". She looked shocked, so I had to add "I dare you." She laughed and said "Well, Marilyn, you know nothing stops me from doing what I want to do." I bet anything she reads his book now. Her husband asked what it was specifially that made Ray question and when we got into the 1914 issue, he was spellbound. We have talked to them openly for years, but some areas have always been off limits. Not last night.
So.............I called him a little while ago to ask him to send me an email because I lost their email address too, when I redid my hard drive on Monday. He was very chatty and told me how much they enjoyed last night. I told him we need to just have them come to our house so we can be more comfortable and talk into the night if we want to, and please let us get together more often than once a year.. He said this "I am so happy to hear that. I was afraid we had crossed the line last night and kept you too late, or talked about things you didn't want to talk about". He was so happy to talk to me again.
This was so great.................I just had to share.