Thursday, June 9, 2016

We drove from Scranton, Pennsylvania to Newark International Airport in New Jersey.  Claire and Shaddow were already in Europe.  They had done a tour of Chernobyl and other Eastern European sites the previous week.  We would meet them at the Frankfurt International Airport in Germany.

Bob had never met Shaddow and Claire, or Rissa, as I called her.  Her full name was Clarissa.  I met them many years ago in Orlando, Florida.   I was in paramedic school.  To pay the bills, I worked as a server at Romano’s Macaroni Grill in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.  The restaurant was in a large tourist area and located just outside the “back” entrance to Walt Disney World.  I also worked at Disney World, but only one day per week.  I don’t remember what month they showed up at the restaurant, but I remember the moment I meant them.  Rissa was standing in the back of the restaurant near the table where we would wrap up the doggy bags.  I asked her name, and she responded, “Raven.”  She had beautiful, long, dark hair to her waist.  When Shaddow introduced himself to me, I loved his name.  It wasn’t long before we discovered a mutual love of Lord Byron and the Romantics.   They moved after a few years.  They are wanderers.  I dreamed of going with them, but I was married and had started my career as a paramedic and a paramedic teacher at a local college.  Somewhere along the way, we lost touch with each other.  When I finally discovered Facebook, the first name I searched was their last name.  I quickly found them, and a friendship was renewed.  It would still be several years before I saw them.  They were in New York City, and I was living in the city at this time.    When we went for dinner, the conversation took up right where it had ended.  We began to discuss a trip to Geneva for June, 2016.   Shaddow planned everything, for which I am eternally grateful.  He planned an amazing trip, well-thought out, and fitting in quite a bit of sights for the limited time we had.

It began on June 9, 2016.   My dream was about to become reality.