club tales

The Mercy Trip

by Cherie Kelly

For about seven years, I have been a member of a book group of seven or eight wonderfully funny and wise Fairbanks ladies. We are a conglomeration of dentist’s wives, artists, executive wives, and business owner/biker babes. We meet monthly to socialize, laugh and finally to discuss our chosen book. We cherish this group of friends and introduce people to each other as, “my Book Group Friend.” We rarely see each other outside of book group, but the bond is deep and true nevertheless as I discovered last winter.

My husband was elected to public office, which meant packing up and going south to our state’s capitol, Juneau, Alaska. My 40-year marriage to my best friend made it imperative that I accompany him. This was our first move out of Fairbanks. We rented an eight-plex two blocks above the capitol building. He loved the apartment for its convenience and his new job for its responsibilities and excitement.

I, on the other hand, was ALONE 12 hours a day, 6 days a week! There were no women in our apartment complex. The women who worked where he worked only spoke about legislative issues. The picture window looked out on the ocean if one stood and peered between tall roofs. But sitting, my view was Mt. Roberts and the sky. Well, sky in Juneau is usually grey and foggy, misting, raining, blowing sideways, drizzly. (I’ll take minus 40 degrees any day over this!) One Sunday to Saturday it snowed 36 inches, and by the following Thursday it was all melted!!! I was not doing well.

Anyway, before we moved to Juneau our book group had decided they would come down to visit me. Little did they know that they helped save my sanity and stopped my weight gain!! Four of the eight were able to come and they stayed three days in April. For the first time I went out and explored Juneau, showing my friends all there is to see -- the ends of the roads in four directions (can be done in less than an afternoon!), the City Museum, the Mendenhall Glacier, the malls, a yarn shop, a nice quilting shop, some fun stores downtown, the ski area. What I did was see Juneau with new eyes, the loving eyes of my book club friends who helped me find my place in this new world.