Small World

I have a funny story to tell. This refers directly to a recent post in my blog. OK, I admit, sometimes I'm a little slow. I knew the last name Heinrich sounded familiar. A classmate of mine from elementary school through high school was Erica Heinrich. One evening last week I was riding the bus home from work reading more of Why We Run, by Bernd Heinrich. I got to a part where the author mentioned he lived in Walnut Creek, CA. What? That's where I grew up. Oh my, it dawned on me that could have met him when I was a kid. You see, the Heinrichs lived around the corner from my parents. My sister and I used to play in the valley behind our house with Erica and other neighborhood kids. I turned to the dedication page of the book and there was her name, among her other siblings. I'll have to find out how my Dad happened upon the book in the first place. I talked to my sister about it and we are not sure if our parents actually knew Erica's parents, maybe only her Mom since she may have been separated from Erica's Dad, Bernd, by then. Interesting... I'll get the scoop from my Dad soon. Small world, huh?

The ironic thing is that last week I had reconnected with Erica on Facebook. This was before the whole book author, childhood thing clicked with me. I wrote to her over the weekend and she confirmed that her Dad is Bernd Heinrich. I'm going to ask her if she knows if her Dad has a super high tolerance for pain. "Grinding" down a piece of loose cartilage? Ouch. Erica lives in Maine now and has two adorable boys. : )