When We Were 19, My Best Friend and I Promised That If We Were Both Single at 60, We’d Find Each Other – I Turned 60 Last Tuesday, and My Old Landline Rang

had waited until someone else came along before admitting the truth to myself.

That night, I began writing him a letter.

I wrote several pages.

I told him I loved him.

I told him I suspected I always had.

Then I tore the entire thing apart.

If Jeffrey was happy, I couldn’t bring myself to interfere.

So I continued being his friend.

Until the summer of 1986.

That was when his final letter arrived.

I knew something was wrong the moment I opened it.

Jeffrey usually began every letter with