One of the sad things about life is losing touch with people we love. We move away from one another. We take different paths that keep us apart. Life just gets in the way. Period.

FOF women love to reconnect with people who were important to us. When we do, we have the uncanny ability to pick up where we left off. We still think of them as good friends, even though we lost contact years ago.

The FOF woman in the photo is Deni, one of my oldest friends.  She was 21 and I was 25 when we met as reporters at Fairchild Publications in New York over 35 years ago. We remained friends when she moved back to California to take over her dad’s publishing company.

Deni and I met over 35 years ago

We were friends when my children were born, when both our dads died way too young, and through numerous other life-altering experiences.  When her breathtaking house burned to the ground (weeks after it was renovated) in one of those horrendous California fires, I cried with her.

Except for a brief reunion about five years ago, Deni and I lost touch, that is, until yesterday.  There in my email was a new registration for www.faboverfifty.com. It was from Deni and the message read: “GERI.” I couldn’t wait to talk to her.

We just got off the phone. Deni and her husband, Tim, now live in McCall, ID, with four dogs, horses and lots of land.

Deni's wonderful husband, Tim, and their horse, Tank, at their ranch in Idaho

“We had to get out of LA.  It was making us crazy,” she told me. My friend is as disarming, quick, generous and beautiful as I thought she was the day we met many moons ago.

Deni told me she’s reunited with her best friends from first grade and from college. The Internet has made “me remember the favorite people in my life.

“I was laying in bed the other night and thought of you,” Deni said. “When I Goggled you and saw you were doing something called Fab Over Fifty, I said to myself, ‘I knew someone would be smart enough to do this.’”

I’m no genius, but I sensed Fab Over Fifty would bring together the great women of my generation.  Little did I know it would bring my great friend back into my life.

I’m a lucky woman. Love you Deni.