Joyride III

The box of See’s candies would always arrive a few days before Christmas. It came meticulously wrapped in brown paper, like something out of a black and white movie. 
My mother would cradle it gently, before putting it under the tree, almost like she was paying homage to her best friend. 
Those chocolates were so exotic during the Cape May of my youth. They were from California and everything about them seemed different. 
Ann Kane lived 3,000 miles away in Loomis, Calif., on a road that sounded like it should be on a movie backlot: Itchy Acres Road. But it wasn’t always that way.
Ann and Libby became friends in West Philadelphia during their high school years in the early 50s.  There seemed to be an instant, undefinable connection between them.
They were as close to soulmates as two friends could be.  Their friendship deftly spanned thousands of miles, five decades and the triumphs and tragedies that each of them faced.
My mother started flying out to visit Ann when air travel felt almost experimental. When she first landed at the Sacramento airport, the surrounding area looked more like a set from a western than a metropolitan city.
Despite the distance, their friendship strengthened over the years. Besides the flights, there were phone calls and lots of letters. They shared it all, the big things like raising kids and the joys and challenges of marriage, and the everyday.
Ann was ever the optimist. And my mother needed that. She was a worrier and Ann helped her to steady through much of it.
And when they would get together, they would get each other into “stiches,” as my mother used to say.
Once one of them started laughing, it was unstoppable.  It would fade in and out and then inexplicably return. They couldn’t even remember what they were laughing about. 
But it didn’t matter. It was about the way they made each other feel.
On the ranch that Ann and her husband Ron lived on, there was a tree that seemed to symbolize their friendship. My mother had a cherished photo of her sitting under Ann’s tree. 
It was one of those California trees that could only survive in warm weather. But somehow it seemed tougher than the rest of its species.