not lost in translation

today mike and i spent the afternoon with my friend, sabine, and her husband, frederic...sabine and i became penpals in 7th grade....i would write to her from staten island in french, pouring through my small english-french dictionary and notes from miss larsen's french class-she would write to me in english from lille...and so it went until somewhere around the time we hit 30, and lost each other in the lack of a forwarding address, or some other crime of the snail-mail era...until 2 1/2 years ago when sabine found me on facebook...and so we brought this extraordinary friendship into the 21st century...and then we finally met, after 38 years, when mike took me to paris for my 50th birthday celebration....it was an incredible day at versailles...a memory i will carry with me forever..and now today, sabine and frederic are in new york, and we are taking them to the 911 memorial...through back and forth emails they have decided that they want to visit the memorial this trip and it would mean more to be with us...and here the four of us are, winding through security lines and finally at the site itself....mike-no french, me-butchering french, sabine and frederic-both with very good english...for quite a while words are not needed, and then all is understood...and after our visit, and a subway trip dodging thunderstorms, we have a wonderful dinner, enjoying each other's company as if we do this all the time, and i think that the simple joy of friendship is never lost in translation....