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Childhood friends reunite at nursing home
Saturday, November 14, 2009
By Liza Matia Staff Writer
Sept. 9, 2009, or more commonly known as 9-9-09, was hailed as a lucky day and it's one that two Mountain Laurel residents won't soon forget. After being separated for more than 40 years, it was on the ninth that Ileau Chew and Jean Lance were reunited.
"We were having a sing-along in the dining room and I heard a voice," Lance said. "I turned around and said, ‘Oh my goodness, that's Ileau Smeal!' I just knew her by her voice."
The women hugged and tried to comprehend what they were seeing.
"I couldn't believe it," Chew said. "She couldn't believe it. There was something from our past."
The two first met at age 13 when Chew moved from West Decatur to Chester Hill. They attended grade school and high school together. But then love and life led them in separate directions. Chew headed to nursing school at Lock Haven University and then went on to pursue her bachelor's and master's degrees at Duke University in North Carolina. Lance married, had children, and stayed in the Philipsburg area. The two then lost touch with each other.
"I was busy working in school and working on my degrees," Chew said. "Jean was busy back at home."
Chew later met her future husband, Kenneth, at a fair in the state of Indiana. At age 28, after graduating from Duke, they married, and later had their son, Richard.
The two were married for 13 years when Kenneth was killed in an automobile accident.
"But we had a good 13 years," Chew said.
Since their reunion in September, Lance and Chew have re-bonded and spend as much time as possible together.
"We have all our activities together," Lance said. "We had it set up so we could have our meals together and we do as much together as we can. I just keep telling her, ‘I'm not losing track of you again.'"
"We just like to talk together and bring up the old times," Chew said. "The memories, oh, the memories!" Most of their conversations start with, "Do you remember when?" Chew said.
One of their favorite stories to share is about "a guy we both liked" named Andrew, Chew said. She knew Jean liked him, but said she couldn't help but like him too.
"Then one day he told me, ‘Me and Jean's getting married,'" Chew said. "And they did," she said. "He was a nice, decent fella."
"It all worked out for the best," Lance said. She and Andrew were married for 51 years before he died.
The women admit that they never tried to find each other during all those years apart, but they were destined to be together. Both ended up at Mountain Laurel due to health reasons, but Lance thinks it could've been a higher calling that brought them back together.
"God works in mysterious ways," she said, and added that she's grateful for the facility. "I wouldn't give this place up for the world. It's wonderful."
Now that the old friends have been reunited, it's as if they were never apart. From fondly referring to one another as "Honey," to joking around together, it's obvious the bond is as strong today as it was years ago.
"Now, you can't separate us," Lance said, holding her friend's hand.
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