I met up with Leslie and Rikki in Bryant Park. In two days they would be boarding the Queen Mary II on their way to London and a few weeks later flying to Istanbul. A few things will get checked off their bucket list, they said.
Leslie and Rikki in Bryant Park, a huge square dancing party is taking place behind them, they weren’t really into it.
Name: Leslie / Rikki Age: 67 / 54
Profession: Retired Educator / Retired Customer Service Director for Air Canada, now a part-time care aid in a hospital dementia facility.
Nationality / Origin: Canadian from the northern Climes, Eastern/Western Viking, aka Scandinavian, some Eastern Russian / Born in Germany.
What is your Relationship to each other: Good friends
How did you meet each other: Rikki: “Boy that’s a story. In a little aerobics studio in Sechelt, British Columbia when I was moving there to finish building a house and went to a little aerobics class and I signed my name in… and Leslie can take the story over from here, because she is the one who read my name.”
Leslie: “I had just lost my best friend, whose name was Rikki, that week– within 3 days. I thought I’d never have a Rikki in my life again, and in the door she came. I was taking the attendance and her name was Rikki. And she came from exactly the same place in BC that my friend had been living. And my best friend’s brother’s name was Harold and this lady’s last name was Harold. And it became a crazy coincidence that we really don’t yet get. That was 1992.
What is your favorite thing about Leslie: “Oh, she is so… generous spirit, generosity, non-judgmental and totally accepting of people and also a very interesting person to talk to, very interesting. Always stimulating and always ready to get going and do things. I mean this big trip we’ve got planned there aren’t a lot of people who can enjoy or want to go away that long and don’t feel that they have to be attached to their families but can really, you know have that adventurous streak. And STILL be very nurturing and family oriented at the same time.”
What is your favorite thing about Rikki: “Oh well… Rikki is an extremely hard-working woman, it so impresses me. She never ever takes the easy way out. Most generous, most tolerant. Tolerant in a good way not meaning “I’m putting up with you” but really tolerant in her assessment of people and always looks for the good side. And there’s many, many more things, but I don’t want to upstage this girl.”
I really love it when Rikki… “I really love it when she’s at aerobics and I can get to talk to her, because she takes too much time off sometimes, because she’s working. I just want her there every day… but she’s not, she’s still working and I’m not.”
I really love it when Leslie… “Can come for a coffee, we go to Starbucks, for an hour or whatever time we have in the day and we can have a really great gab, a great conversation in that time.”
Why is Rikki important to you: “She constitutes a sort of thread of continuity thru that period that I met her and I don’t have a lot of friends from that period anymore, I’ve lost quite a few of them, so it’s continuity I think, and it’s not having to explain myself. I don’t have to fill in all the background. I love to talk, I talk too much, and it’s a really good thing not to have to say everything when you’re with someone.”
Why is Leslie important to you: “Because even if I don’t see her everyday, she’s just such a solid personality and such a good friend that I know she’s there and accepts me and is a good sounding board and the confidence I’ve given her, I know only stays with her.”
What does love mean to you Leslie? Love is… “A quality of mind that indicates caring and as I’ve observed this in NY, because it does come to mind here, I’m finding that people, even if they’re rough, to have a very, very deep courtesy. Like a caring——courtesy is of the heart, and I really see it in this city, despite a lot of grittiness and other things that are a little foreign to me, and I really appreciate that. I think it’s far more important than having good manners, to have courtesy.”
What does love mean to you Rikki? “Genuine respect for all life. And it doesn’t have to be extraordinarily demonstrative, it’s just acknowledging other living beings and things and caring for them in your own certain way, in your own little realm that you can nurture one another.”
How did your trip come about? (Rikki) “Leslie talked about her great travels, and I’ve been wanting to go to Turkey and she said, that sounds great. This was planned over a year ago. So we started with the Turkey trip and then Leslie said what about the Cunard Queen Mary from New York to London, and I said, why not… And then why not a few days in New York, one night, two nights, now three nights.” (Leslie) “Then we can stay in London, with my Daughter in South Hampton and it just kept going and going and going. It’s actually a fairly ambitious trip for one haul.”
Bon Voyage, Leslie and Rikki!