I never kept in touch with anyone from High School and it would be another 20 years before the names, faces and those memories would re-surface. Welcome to Facebook 101, it can be a cyber high school re-union of sorts, if like me you lost touch so many years ago. Bernard Doyle and I lived around the corner from one another in New Jersey, we shared the same bus twice a day and yet we never really "hung out" together.
Over the past several years, Bernie has stood out amongst my Facebook friends; for his humor, character, devotion to his daughter and his career as a photographer in New York. Yes, Bernie is a photographer. He went to NJIT for engineering but ended up, becoming a very successful (self taught) photographer (he recently photographed a client of his at the closing bell of the NY Stock Exchange, and had a gig with Crosby Stills and Nash) and I've come to look forward to his posts, and have wondered how two people who where aware of each other, so many years ago, could have drifted down such a similar path. Bernie also loves to scuba dive.
So 22 years later, Bernie and his daughter ended up in Boston and we all met in the public garden. As a joke, I printed out (12"x18") prints of our senior yearbook photos, after his initial shock wore off, I looked at him and I think we both thought the same thing (after all we are photographers) PHOTO OP!
We talked, and caught up, while our daughters' played together and I look forward to keeping in touch. But there is more to this story...
Bernie went to our 20th High School reunion two years ago (I didn't go), and well he met someone. Someone we both graduated with but neither of us, ever really knew. They only chatted briefly at the reunion, but then became friends on Facebook and well I guess she read, what I read into Bernie's posts and now two years later here they both are. She has a daughter two years older than his and the best part of all of this! Watching how seamless they are together, and even better yet, seeing how inseparable their daughters are together. You could have almost mis-taken them for sisters.
And so it is, 22 years later, two guys who never really hung out, meeting again in a public garden in Boston, realizing that their connection, is much deeper than just having graduated together!
If you are in the New York/New Jersey area and looking for a photographer, look Bernie up:
http://www.bernarddoylephoto.com
I'll vouch for him, after all I asked him take a picture of my daughters...
PHOTOGRAPHY BY BERNARD DOYLE COPYRIGHT 2011
Warm Regards,
Michael J. Lee
2 comments:
So cool! Love your story Michael! This is what LIFE is all about!
Thanks Jill, was a fun day!
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