Precious Vacation Friendships

Last month my family spent six beautiful days on vacation near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. 

Someday I'd like to take the kids to Charleston for its history, both important and terrible. Prior to the Civil War, Charleston (a 90-minute drive from Myrtle) was the capital of the slave-trade industry, with as many as 40 percent of all enslaved Africans arriving at the New World through its port. It's essential to me that my children learn the unvarnished truth about this darkness in our national history, so they can better understand America as a whole. 

But not yet. At 7 and 10, they're still too young to understand and appreciate seeing the historical artifacts of slavery in person. Rather than being educational, I think Charleston's stories would be deeply upsetting to them. So we stuck to the greater Myrtle Beach area on this trip.   

It's a two-day, 700-mile drive to get there, so by the time we arrived at the resort my children were eager to run, make lots of noise, and talk to anybody but each other. 

On the day we arrived, my son - who will strike up a conversation with anyone and everyone - befriended two boys in the resort lobby while my husband and I sorted out a mix-up on our reservation. I kept them in the corner of my eye as I talked to the front-desk attendant, just to make sure they didn't set any fires or knock down any old ladies. 

About 20 minutes later, as we drove our loaded-down SUV toward the buildings where we were staying, my son told me he'd made two new friends who were also staying for the week. He had even gotten their Roblox user names so they could play video games together. I guess this is today's equivalent of what I did in the 1990s: getting your friend's phone number so you can sit in near-silence and watch television together from separate houses. 

Imagine our surprise when he saw his new friends again as we were unloading our car. A fun coincidence - the boys and their grandmother were staying in the first-floor condo directly below us.

Bright and early the next morning, we ran into them again at the shuttle stop on our way to the beach. The three boys happily spent the entire time talking video game strategies and favorite characters during the short drive to the shore. Once we arrived, they ran off into the waves together to play. Grandma watched from shallower water, so I stayed closer to them just in case anybody got toppled by a rogue wave.

 
That afternoon and several other days throughout the week, we saw the boys at the pool. They took turns diving for toys, racing each other, and playing a dunking game my kids had learned back home. My daughter would join them for a while, then wander back to us after growing tired of their boundless energy.

Pool time, with a side of friends

 

I finally had a chance to chat with the boys' grandmother as she sat beside the pool. She told me she lives in Charlotte and the boys are cousins; one lives near her and the other came up from Florida. We talked about her travels to visit her adult children in the military as they were stationed in various states, and the places my husband and I had seen together. It was the kind of general small talk one makes with others while on vacation. She was kind and quick to laugh, and also to let loose - more than once I saw her join a poolside dance party to do the Electric Slide and Cupid Shuffle. She knew all the moves, too, which is more than I can say for myself.

One afternoon, while we waited out a passing rain shower, the boys from downstairs came up to our condo to play video games. All four kids huddled in the second-story loft playing a Roblox game together, calling out wins and losses and warnings with a friendliness that would have led you to believe they had known each other for years, not days.

On our last day at the resort, I overheard the grandmother calling to the boys from the hallway to ensure they had their device chargers and other various accessories. I told my son to run down and say goodbye to his vacation friends, and then decided I would go say goodbye as well. 

I was met at the bottom of the stairs with a hug from the grandmother, who said her grandsons had enjoyed such a good time with my kids. It had made their week, she said. She explained that she and her husband used to take the boys to the beach together, but he passed away in 2021. This was the first trip where she had ventured to take them alone. I expressed hope that their playing had given her some break time, because I know how overwhelming rambunctious kids can be. She agreed that it had. And honestly, watching my son make friends had brought me joy as well.

We wished them safe travels, and they drove out of the parking lot and back to their regular lives. It was a delightful coincidence that we shared a week with this small, lovely family who I enjoyed meeting but I'll probably never see again. 

I never even got her name, but I wish I had. 

I hope she's learning to navigate life without her husband, and that week in this new chapter of her life was good for her soul. I hope the boys are off to school now and have a successful year. I wish they knew how much this short friendship meant to a 10-year-old who is struggling to find his place among classmates, and to his mother who watches. 

In a state that flew the Confederate battle flag over the Capitol building until 2015, nobody cared that the boys and their grandma are black and we are white. Friends come in all colors.