I Love Heidelberg

I love Heidelberg, and I'll tell you lots of reasons why.

* Until I was married, it was the longest I had ever lived in one place at a time--almost 3 years.
* My brother graduated from High School in the castle.
* My sister had her prom--in the castle.
* We had school field trips--in the castle.
* Our MIA rode our bikes from our uber cool chapel across the river to--the castle.
* We had ward picnics on the banks of the Neckar River while they illuminated the castle with fireworks.
* It still gets me choked up when I see pictures of it or hear the name "Heidelberg."
* My little sister was born there.
* It was the last place my family lived before my brother left for college and we kids were all split up.
* I saw my first opera--The Student Prince--with my mother--in the courtyard of the castle.
* I made a friend for life--Holly.

Saturday morning Holly and I met for breakfast here in Provo. We've known each other since we were ten. They had just moved to Heidelberg from Okinawa, and my dad had just finished a year away from us in Korea. We lived in different housing areas, so we didn't go to elementary school together. But we became fast friends through our ward. We had only joined the Church two years before, so I looked to her and the other girls to "show me the ropes."

We went to each other's birthday parties, Girls Camp, Primary, and navigated all the catty girl-smack from the other Beehives. She never made fun of my incredibly ugly swimsuit with the apron. I don't know if I've ever had a "best friend" because I generally moved every year and I sort of never developed that skill, but Holly would have to be way up there.

Her family is awesome. Her parents were so kind to me, and her brothers and sister were annoying and cute. I was the youngest so having younger siblings around was a new thing for me. But then, when I was 11, my mom had my sister Emily, and Holly's dad delivered her. He even forced my dad to come into the delivery room and watch. Yay Dr. H! I don't think anyone else would have been successful in that endeavor.

Then my dad got his own battalion to command, and we moved away--two hours north. I was devastated. It was not a beautiful city like Heidelberg. Giessen had been nearly completely destroyed during WW2, and it had a very cold, industrial feel to it. Not really its fault, I suppose, since the bombs were allied after all. I made new friends, was yearbook editor, got my first kiss, visited Amsterdam, Paris, London, Switzerland, Austria, and left just over a year later. We army brats pack a lot of living into a short period of time. It's sort of an occupational hazard. But I was sooo homesick for Heidelberg, and I really wanted to go back.

So my Mom and Dad stuck me on the train and let me ride all by myself back to Heidelberg, where Holly and her parents picked my up at the train station and whisked me away to their apartment. We went to a middle school dance so I could see my other friends from school, and I got to spend the whole weekend with Holly. It's true that you really can't go home again, but this was pretty darn close.

Over the years, we've both lived lots of places. Our family visited Holly's family in Emporia, Kansas (aka The Coldest Place on Earth). They lived next door to my surrogate parents, Jack & Janet. Jack was our bishop in Heidelberg and the doctor that stitched my face back together after my run-in with a chain-link fence in sixth grade. I saw Holly pretty regularly in the HFAC at BYU. I would be coming out of class and she was always rehearsing with some choral group or another. She had a gorgeous voice even when we were kids. Then she went on a mission, I graduated, and we lost touch for lots of years.

But now we're back in touch, and I'm so happy. She just lives in Orem, one town away. And you know the best part? Even if I had just met her today, I would still love her. We can talk for hours about new stuff, not stuff that happened when we were 10. That is the proof of a real friendship, I think. Lots of people can reminisce, but most people can't still find things in common. She loves the same books Elvira and I do, we both have close families, love opera, and we see things alike in a lot of ways. And she has one of the best laughs in the universe. You can not help but grin from ear to ear and be instantly happy if you hear it.

Heidelberg was very good to me.