I first began going to church in 2014. I met this little ole gal there. Her name is Henrietta. She would speak to me every time she saw me. Henrietta, would force me to speak to her. I say force because I wasn’t the most sociable person in the world and I was not at a point in my life where I wanted anyone around me. I avoided everyone I could, but Henrietta just wasn’t having it.
At that time in my life, I didn’t want friends. I just wanted everybody to leave me alone. My life was full of toxic people. My job was incredibly stressful and it wasn’t because of the work, it was because of the people I worked with. My mother was rampaging through my life ripping it apart at the seams. My daughter had just moved out. Everything was just a painful, stressful mess.
I didn’t want to make friends with anyone. I had no strength to deal with any madness and I was to the point that I decided people are all the same, and by that I mean toxic.
Matter of fact, I wanted to be left alone so badly that I sold my home and moved. I lived just outside of town and I moved less than a mile away into town. I thought it was so amazing. I moved 2 minutes away and no one knew where I was for months! It gave me, for a little while, the peace and space that I was looking for. I was trying to make some changes in my life at the time. I had only just found God and I was trying to let go of a lot of people in my life.
Miss Henrietta lived down the road from me. If I was out and she saw me, she’d stop so I would have to talk to her. At first I thought she was just one of those busy bodies that like to worm their way into your life and then talk about you to everybody and their brother. I had had enough of those kinds of people. I didn’t want to make friends with her, but making friends with me was her goal.
Henrietta wanted me to go to lunch. She was quite insistent, I agreed. I thought that if I gave her some attention, she would go away for a while. She talked my ears off! I decided that she was probably an innocent old lady that was just incredibly lonely. I felt bad for her and I felt bad for being so avoidant.
I decided to start giving Henrietta some of my time in hope that she would stop stalking me. I was such a crab in my misery at that time and it seemed like she was always around every time I left the house. So, that’s why I say stalking. She really wasn’t, it just seemed like it in my messed up mind because I was miserable and all I wanted was to be left alone. If I thought I could have survived it, I would had pitched a tent in the desert to be alone. We lived in a town with 2 stop signs and Henrietta loved to run around, talk and visit! There wasn’t a person she didn’t know. That is why I saw her all the time.
We started doing lunches together, I quickly found out that she was not the lonely old lady I thought she was. Henrietta knew everybody everywhere in whatever town we went to. That scared me. People like that, are the type that get up in your business just to talk about you. So I began to distance myself from her. It wasn’t working. Henrietta was still texting and calling, wanting to go out to lunch. So I decided that I would have lunch with her. My intention was to tell her; just to come out and tell her that I didn’t want to be friends. I felt like such a shrew and didn’t follow through with it.
I asked Henrietta with all the people you have in your life, why do you need me? Henrietta told me that she didn’t need me. Then she stated, “There is just something about you. That makes me want to be your friend.” Then she told me that I was like a stray dog that was scared of people. I laughed at that, but she was right. Then, she ask me to accept her friendship.
That afternoon, I reconsidered my decision to kick her to the curb and become an epic hermit. I have never regretted making that choice. Henrietta understood me and she was good for me. She helped me heal, accept friendship again and to allow people the opportunity to get to know me and love me. I have gone through some really hard times and she has always been there for me.
I never found out what that thing was about me that made her want to be my friend and I don’t think she ever did either. But, whatever it is, I am blessed that God chose me to obtain it. Henrietta has been the greatest friend I have ever had. It took me a long time to trust her. All these years later, we have an amazing friendship. I don’t see her as much as I used to. She is in her 80’s now and her health has declined. I moved away, but I speak with her often and see her when I can. I know in my heart that she is a blessing sent from God.