“Serendipity” by Donna Lyons © 2016

By Marty Coffin Evans
A pink slip arrived in my high school classroom summoning me to the Dean of Girl’s office. “Oh dear,” I thought, believing I was a good kid and not accustomed to being called to a front office, especially one involving discipline.

Dean Ruth Densmore proceeded to introduce me to Donna, a student new to our school. She asked me to show Donna around our large high school, introduce her to my friends and make her feel welcome. I didn’t know the teary impact of this introduction for Donna’s mother or her. Two new schools in two years was a lot.

Who knew those years ago where our journey would take us let alone our matronly dean thinking to connect two shy, relatively quiet, young girls? Maybe it was Donna’s interest and artistic ability or my musical one with choirs.

Donna and I still laugh at all the crazy, off the wall bad jokes I told. In retrospect, although she laughed, and probably wondered about them, I worried I’d offended her and caused the potential loss of a new friend.

I needn’t have worried given a decades-long friendship which evolved. We’ve traveled the highs and lows of life through marriages, loss of parents and special friends, along with new relationships. We’re told friendships keep us mentally healthy and help us live longer, richer lives. Caring and sharing come along with friendships while helping us navigate life’s challenges. Although we may never know how or where friendships emerge, they can provide a lifetime blessing as ours has done.

Recently at our two-plus-hour lunch, I gave Donna a wooden plaque – “Girlfriends are the sisters we choose for ourselves.” We both agree, this inscription well describes our relationship, even though she has a sister and I, no siblings.

That day, Donna commented, “I love how we just pick right up where we left off.” Previously, we might have touched briefly on friends and family. Our lunches have changed from talking about collaborating in offering a workshop to creating a little book, and now our “Multicolored Reflections Blog.” Donna’s plein air art pieces will be paired with my reflective writings.

We hope you will “tune in” every now and again to see our latest creative offerings. We’re planning on monthly entries throughout the year. Mine will continue to be on this website. Donna’s website can be found at Donna Lyons Fine Art. Copyright 2023 Marty Coffin Evans.

Marty and Donna

The Right Time in the Right Place
By Donna Lyons

The timing was perfect. Looking back over the years to that day so very long ago, I remember the anxiety that caused my breath to catch and my words to trip on my tongue as I met the Dean of Girls at the new high school. My Mom and I were in the busy office of the large, three-story, three-wing building, registering for what was to be my new daily adventure. It was the middle of the fall semester and we had just moved from a little mountain town where I attended a school that boasted a graduating class of 13 students. How would I ever find my way around these long halls, learn my daily schedule to get to class on time, navigate through the hundreds of students heading in every direction, memorize my locker combination, carry all these books all morning, and remember to come back to the office (will I find my way back?) to pick up more forms, all the while trying not to act like a newbie?
Here, everyone seemed to know one another and so far, no one had spoken to me. I knew no one and I feared I would stick out like a sore thumb, but I was looking forward to finding the art room for my art class that afternoon. My Mom felt the anxiety also, managing to keep all of us happy and staying positive as strangers in a new environment, while she was absorbing the family stress of the recent move, my Dad’s new job, and trying to settle my younger brother and sister into their separate schools, while figuring out how to get each of us there on time from way across town at the same hour of the morning with only one vehicle in the family.
Gently, the office door slowly opened and a lovely woman with strikingly kind grey eyes and a warm smile greeted us. Her reassurance was so welcome! “Not to worry”, she promised and very soon after she sent a note via a student messenger, another student appeared in the office. Obviously disturbed by this sudden summons, this girl arrived looking very worried as she never had been “called into the office”, and was certain she was in trouble for something. Miss Ruth Densmore, the Dean of Girls, had chosen Martha to be my escort for the week to make certain I could find my locker, pack up the books I would need for the mornings’ walks up and down the stairs and through the myriad of hallways, and most especially, to have someone to befriend – a lunchroom partner at the least. I was so grateful and I could see my mother was relieved as well. Thank you, Miss Densmore!
It was from that day, when Miss Densmore charmed us with her quiet, kind ways, that Marty and I formed our life-long friendship. We since have seen each other through the very best and the very worst of times. We have shared happy tears over marriages, accolades and good fortune, sad ones over divorces, deaths of parents and husbands, and the gradual loss of vigorous health. Even though we lived 1,000 miles apart for years and years, we smile at the ancient memories we have of supporting each other in the pursuit of old boyfriends, passing grades in Spanish III, business ventures, and the exhausting months of earning advance degrees and professional goals while maintaining our duties to our full-time jobs. We talk of the trials of moving in and out of favorite homes, of our travels and new friends. We have shared outdoor adventures filled with the pleasures the mountains of our favorite State abundantly provides, enjoyed our favorite Margaritas and Quesadillas, laughed hysterically at off-color jokes we would never repeat and continue to make all kinds off plans as if we will live forever. Isn’t that what “besties” do?
It was over Margaritas that we decided to team up and each share some of our work which we have enjoyed as our life-long separate passions. We hope you will “tune in” once in a while and meet us at our shared Chromatic Reflections Blog. This is a new venture where we will pair Marty’s writings with my art work. You can view our work and find us on the respective home pages of our websites at www.donnalyonswatercolor.com and www.martycoffinevans.com.
Thank you, Miss Densmore for that morning that changed the future for two young women, both floundering their way through their sophomore year. It was a most fortuitous day, and now, 65 years of great friendship down the road from that day, we are still thinking of you and we are forever grateful.

“Serendipity”, 8″x 6″ Gouache and Watercolor Pencil, copyright 2023 by Donna Lyons”
“There are times in our lives when a light seems to glow and gradually emerges out of the darkness and illuminates something, changing it in that moment into something else, something lovely. Let’s strive to be open to those unexpected moments of grace.”

November 2023