Stealing the Frames Right Off Her Face

I have been friends with Marion since 1967. We met in our first year of university, and we try to get together every couple of weeks to explore our city. We make a list of places we need to visit, and we often look at eyeglass frames. 

In 2014, Marion and I ordered the same Face a Face frame but in different colours. Although my heart immediately embraced the black and white ones, I reluctantly opted for the black and flesh-toned combination. I did this because I had another pair of black and white glasses, and I wanted to expand my colour options. Marion, however, ordered the amazing black and white frames. 

We hardly ever make shopping mistakes, but when the glasses arrived, neither of us was deeply in love with our purchases. As the years passed, she wore hers less and less, and I added tinted lenses to improve mine, but I still longed for the black and white pair. Each time I got close to asking her to part with the coveted black and white frames, she would wear them on an outing. 

A few weeks ago, I realized I had an opening. She arrived for our girl-day wearing the coveted glasses. Every time she walked by a mirror while shopping, she mentioned she didn’t love her frames. We returned to her car, and she got into the driver’s seat. Glancing into the rearview mirror, she reiterated her disdain for the glasses. I blurted out, enthusiastically, that I would buy them from her, at any price, or, even better, she could give them to me for my birthday! Tee-hee! She didn’t hesitate for a minute, whipping them off her face and tossing them onto my lap. I may have uttered an audible yahoo! I hastily put them in my purse before she could change her mind. Then I realized she was driving without glasses! I know her like family, but unbeknownst to me, she doesn’t need glasses to drive. Phew! 

This opportunity won’t arise again because now we know our face shapes are different. Hers is longer and thinner than mine, so she can wear deeper glasses. My shorter, wider face allows me to wear shallower frames, like the black and whites she gave me. I will look through my collection in case I have some frames that would look better on her. This transaction made me feel nostalgic for our university years when we often arranged accessory trading sessions with each other. There is one thing neither of us will ever trade and that is our long and fabulous friendship of over fifty years. 

I know now that one can never have too many black and white frames. Tee-hee!

NOTE:

I am a client of Salisbury Degelman Vision Centre on 21^st Street in Saskatoon, an FYidoctors location. Dr. Paul Salisbury’s father was my optometrist in the late 1960s, and since then, I have been a patient of Dr. Paul Salisbury and for the last several years of Dr. Tyler Degelman. They now have 5 optometrists on staff along with many technicians and receptionists. There is minimal turnover, so each visit there feels like returning home. More than one staff person remembers the day Marion and I purchased these frames.