It's good to have friends

Just before my vacation, my daughter's friend's mother contacted me. D is a casual friend of mine, brought together about 4-5 years ago when our daughters became friends at school. She asked me if I could hem some uniform pants for her this month, and maybe sew on some patches of some sort. I told her to catch me as soon as I got back, and over last weekend we arranged for her to come over tonight.

Her first husband died of cancer, not too long after their divorce. She remarried soon after we met, and her now-husband is a casual friend of my ex, an older brother of a friend/classmate. So as with most of 'our' friends, I have been unsure whether I would still be supported since the split.

It's always tough to know who gets to keep the friends. The divorce papers usually don't specify that.

But after I posted about my leaking roof on Facebook, she told me her husband volunteered to take a look at it. He works in construction and had helped us replace a window or two last summer, to get us going on that process. And once he saw the picture of the ceiling damage, he wanted to stop by as soon as possible. The gusting-up-to-80-mph winds blowing the heavy rains were the culprit, but I think he was worried that delays may result in even more issues.

So he came along to pick up their daughter on Tuesday. And he brought his ladder and climbed up on my roof to identify the problem. He commented that he'd need to find some matching shingles, which I just happened to have in my garage, left by the previous owners. That comment told me that he wasn't just checking it out for me... he was actually planning to fix it. And then he volunteered to do the work in exchange for my sewing work for his wife. I think he intends to start tonight when she brings over the sewing.

Really? I can sew stuff in exchange for a roofing repair? How is this ANY sort of fair on his side? I obviously got the friend discount.

Sign me relieved. :)