Friends
by Joe Reinschmidt
Bea and Gretel.BFF is one of the many acronyms created by and for text messaging – It means Best Friends Forever. No doubt it’s used a lot more than it will ever really be experienced. There are, however, folks who have lived that life long before BFF came along. This is the story of two women who put BFF into practice.
In 1949, when the GE plant in Brockport was hiring people to run production machines, Gretel, a girl who grew up in Germany during WWII, applied. She had come over to America to marry a GI. Gretel recalls it was January 3 and she was the second person they hired. Bea, a local girl, was hired soon thereafter. They both recall vividly that on January 19 one of the other workers had a birthday. A cake was brought in, cut up, and pieces of it given to each worker except Gretel. Bea noticed that, and in her words, “I couldn’t stand that kind of treatment.” So Bea got a napkin, cut her cake in half and gave half to Gretel to “enjoy.” Their friendship was cemented with that kind gesture.
Gretel’s marriage ended in divorce and in 1960 she married Bill, a widower. Bill had a business and felt Gretel didn’t need to work so she left GE after 12 years. Bea, who was married, continued working there 25 years. During those years, the couples became good friends and socialized with each other constantly. Bill loved going to Florida and continued doing so with Gretel who learned to like it as well. Bea and her husband rarely traveled and never to Florida. Nevertheless they remained great friends.
On March 4, 1994 Bea’s husband died. In September, Bea had a stroke and needed care to get around in her two story house. Without hesitation, Bill told Gretel that, “Bea must come and live with us in our one story house.” She did, but probably not without first refusing. Bea’s health improved and soon the effects of the stroke were mostly gone. Bill might have had an ulterior motive since, through their friendship, he knew Bea was a good cook. Of course, Gretel was no slouch when it came to cooking. But Bill, who loved lots of good food, probably figured the only thing better than a good cook is two of them. In fact, he referred to Gretel as “little cook” and Bea as “big cook.” Gretel says that is only because Bea is of larger “stature.”
In November 1994, Gretel and Bill were preparing to go to Florida, when Bill told Bea to get busy and pack for the trip. Bea had reservations since she had never done anything like that but was persuaded to go. Their last overnight was at a motel about 200 miles from their destination. Bea took the dogs for a walk, Gretel took the suitcases in as Bill, who used a walker, tried to go up a step in the sidewalk. He fell backwards on the sidewalk hitting his head. Rushed to the hospital they soon learned his injury was serious. He was lucid at times and Gretel recalls him looking at her, as she sat by his side and saying, “Gretel, we had 33 good years didn’t we.” He died a while later but their friend Bea was there. “So at least I wasn’t alone when he died,” said Gretel. Was it circumstance or fate that this was the first time they had ever taken anyone with them to Florida?
As it turned out, Bea did learn to like Florida so the friends continued their annual trips, driving themselves back and forth, and later having a friend drive them, who then flew home and returned in the spring to drive them back. While there, Gretel’s niece and family from Germany comes to visit a while and they also visit here annually in July. Gretel has been notified that this year that visit will occur in September to help her celebrate her 90th birthday.
Recently, Bea and Gretel had an exciting experience. They love feeding animals in their backyard which has multiple bird feeders. During winter, Gretel lays ears of corn near a big tree about 15 feet from the garage. They enjoy watching the wildlife that eats there. One Sunday morning in March they noticed the bird feeder mounted on a steel rod was on the ground and the rod bent over. “Must have been two raccoons up there” said Gretel. So Sunday evening they kept checking for activity. When it was almost dark they noticed an object near the tree that, in the shadows, at first looked like a garbage can, but then it moved a little. Bea can’t see well but Gretel strained to identify it without turning on the yard light. It became obvious it was a bear. She thought about what little defense they would have against a bear. Gretel called 911 and about 20 minutes later a Deputy Sheriff came, probably doubting the reason for the call. They took him to the window to see for himself. Now the bear was lying on the ground happily munching on one of the corn ears. At some point the Deputy called in to headquarters and exclaimed, “this is no cub, it’s a full size bear.” He took a bunch of pictures and seemed thrilled with the event. They went into the garage, slowly opened the door to the rear yard a little and turned on the light, whereupon the bear stood up, but made no move except to continue chewing. Eventually he ambled off at his own pace. He hasn’t been seen again – yet. Gretel couldn’t resist calling a farmer friend of hers on Lake Road to tell him her bear was bigger than the one he had seen on his property.
Both Bea and Gretel were hospitalized briefly at different times and for different reasons but they fortunately have other friends who help out with food, transportation and other needs for the one who is home.
How do you maintain such a strong friendship? Their opinion seems to be that it starts with yourself by being content and generally happy and then simply appreciating, caring for and enjoying each other. Listening to them it is easy to see why they enjoyed 64 years of friendship. You need to know that Bea is happily into the 101st year of her life.
When our 10 year old granddaughter Emily heard about this friendship she said “Opa that is a BFFL story!” “What’s that?” I asked. Opa, “it is Best Friends For Life!” That certainly seems to be an appropriate conclusion.
