Georgia Peach

Judi, Pam and Lilian - First Breakfast - Photo courtesy of  Lilian Kosten

I've been around the block. I know how Road Scholar works.

When I signed up for the program, I requested a double room, with a roommate to be assigned. In some ways it's a crapshoot, but during my eleven years, I had few (if any) failures in pairing people who'd never met before.

Sending an email off to Denali Education Center, I asked the staff if they'd assigned me a roommate that they give her my name and email/phone number, so she could contact me if she wished.

A couple of weeks later there was a message on my answering machine from a lady with a thick southern accent. We communicated briefly over the next few weeks before we met in person. Her name was Pam, and she was a recent widow from a small Georgia town on the outskirts of Augusta. She'd participated in a few RS programs, mostly hiking. She'd done a lot of traveling with her husband and was now ready to venture out on her own.

I liked what I heard and what I read in the emails we exchanged. I liked her even more when we met in person, the morning after we both arrived.

Pam and her Alaska Boy Friend

On a whim and without consulting Pam ahead of time, I invited Facebook friend Lilian to join us for breakfast and instantly wondered if I'd overstepped my bounds. I needed have worried. The three of us chatted as if we were lifelong friends instead of just-mets. It was a delightful introduction to Alaska, to the program and to the ladies.

After breakfast I moved my luggage up to the room we were assigned, and Pam and I settled in to get acquainted. The more we talked, the more we discovered we had in common. Her beautiful soul just shone through her every word. 

When I coordinated programs and was faced with pairing two unassigned doubles, I used to do a lot of thinking about who to place together, if I had a choice. I have no way of knowing if Mollie, Kimber and Jodi of DEC do the same. If they did, they did a bang-up job.

As a friend and a roommate, Pam is a real keeper.