A Ten-Year Conversation Between Friends by Shirley D. Jordan

Remembered

A Ten-Year Conversation Between Friends

IN 2002 A CHANCE MEETING TOTALLY CHANGED MY RETIREMENT. My husband Joe and I had moved from the Nation’s Oldest City to the riva’ as some say. In other words, we closed our insurance office in St. Augustine and built a tin roofed Creole style home on the St. Johns River in Welaka, Florida.

I loved the beauty and tranquility of the area but missed the company of writers and artists I had enjoyed in St. Augustine.

Then at a small pool party I met the person who would become my best friend and business partner in a wonderful new adventure. Sharon Cobb had moved to the Welaka area at the behest of her son and daughter who lived there. Her son was a very talented boat builder and her daughter became my attorney. But those are stories for another time.

As we talked poolside that evening, we discovered how very much we had in common. I was a fairly well published author and Sharon had just received a degree in Creative Writing from Eckerd College. I told her about having my own column in a city newspaper at the age of fifteen. She told me about all her travels and starting college in her sixties. We tuned out all others and talked non-stop for two hours.

By the next day we had formulated a plan to do writing workshops for other frustrated writers in the area. We also formed a chapter of NLAPW (National League of American Pen Women). Thru this organization we gained much of the talent we would later publish.

We began with only poetry and published our first anthology in 2003 titled Of Sea, Sand and Citrus Groves. It was a huge success and we also did workshops for beginning writers. These writers asked if we would consider publishing short stories as well as poetry. We loved the idea and received way too many entries to put in one volume. We chose the best writers and attracted some artists along the way competing for our cover and inside illustrations.

A surprise to us, was one of our accepted entries was from a professor at Flagler College. A few days after publication I received a phone call from the college asking for 64 copies of the book. Seems they wanted to use it in an American Lit class. We were delighted and began receiving entries from really fine writers for our next book titled Textures. It was a wonderful combination of poetry and stories.

Along the way Sharon and I would take copies of all the entries, go to our separate corners (actually our homes) then meet the next morning to decide which ones to include. We started paying our writers and artists if they made the honors page. Two of those beginning writers have gone on to have books published and win many awards.

Sharon had the degree but any-time we entered a competition I seemed to win. I told her jokingly that she always killed off the main character too early in her story. To prove this point I made her agree to allow me to choose her next entry. She handed me three stories and I made my choice. She said I chose the one she thought was weak, but she accepted my decision and she won first place. She did all our layouts and formatting while she depended on me for ideas and creativity. It was a winning combination.

If we were in disagreement over what writer’s work to accept or who would make the honors page, we read aloud to one another. We spent hours talking about the work and life in general.

We published a total of ten anthologies over a ten-year period. Sadly, as age and the cost of publishing crept up, we decided to go out of the publishing business. Sharon insisted we do one last book containing the best works we had received through the years. It was appropriately titled The Best of Friends.

In April of this year I sat by Sharon’s bed holding her hand. Her health had been failing for months and I knew this would most likely be my last visit. She could only whisper her words, but she pointed to the shelf containing all our books. Then she asked me to read. I chose our last volume, The Best of Friends and read two of our favorite short stories. She squeezed my hand and I asked if she wanted to hear some poetry. She smiled and I read til she drifted off into a semi-comatose state.

I have had many good friends in my lifetime. I am a people person and very outgoing. But the meeting of Sharon Cobb at that poolside gathering I know was either fate or God’s plan depending on one’s belief. Our friendship was a wild and wonderful ten-year conversation!