President Obama is the first POTUS, in office, to visit Wales

[Skidmore]

32. I'd love to visit Wales although

I feel like I've already been there many times. Several years ago, in FB's infancy, I made a friend on FB who lives on a slope of a moutain in Wales. Another woman half a world away. I used to have lots of problems with insomnia so I was up in the wee hours of the morning and she was waiting after finishing her chores to go pick up her daughter at school. We met over a game and started to chat, one of many chats we've had over the years. We began to phone each other periodically. Our daughters became friends too on FB. We've shared good times and bad times--graduations, weddings, births of grandchildren, birthdays, holiday jaunts, travails of DIY projects, gardening tips, recipes, silly pictures and jokes and, yes, even illnesses and losses of loved ones.

Between the two of us we forged a group of 10 women who we had met online playing that silly little game. The game no longer exists and I can't even remember the name of it, but the friendships have. Women from all over--Wales, US South, Midwest, England, Canada, Italy, and Norway. Sometimes I amazed at how close we all have become without being in geographically near one another.

My friend kept me company online during my treatment regimen for cancer and now I am doing the same for her. I will lose my friend to her rare incurable cancer. She has held on much longer than the time she was given by the doctors. I spoke with her yesterday and got to visit Wales again over the wires. She and her family are lovely people. I'll forever have a deep abiding love and respect for her and for Wales because of her.