Love from: Paul Downs

Oddly enough, it saw the forwarded message in my inbox just as I was returning from dropping off at UPS of an inscribed copy of my book that I am sending your father. He can consider it a birthday present. (I am assuming that the puzzled look of the UPS clerk on seeing the mailing address does not presage issues with its safe delivery to the houseboat.

Here are a few words to add to the birthday celebration in absentia.

It is rare that “I know you will like him” proves out in the real world. Rarer still to double down on that bet and come out ahead. Lauren is the exception that proves the rule.

I was lucky enough to have a common friend suggest that I meet Lauren with the tagline “You’ll get along well…” Contrary to my prior lived experience, that turned out actually to be the case. Lauren has become more than a friend: he is family to me.

That’s still not the payoff…

After I had known Lauren for a short while --mostly remotely by phone and email-- he invited me and Rebecca to the Vineyard to stay with Karen and him at their beautiful house. Very much like Lauren, an unsolicited kindness. Mind you, Lauren had not met Rebecca nor I Karen. And, of course, each of them was blissfully unaware of the other. Lauren said something in the vicinity of “I think they will like one another.”

An artist. An actress. Both Okies. Who knew? Lauren knew instinctively. What could have become a cautionary tale later to be recounted around campfires was in fact a fated encounter that cemented a dual friendship. Lauren called it, and we all melded. 

Rare does not denote something simply unusual or uncommon. Rare describes a friend like Lauren.