Dear editor,

Many people believe in friendships and that those friendships are true and caring. My friends Amalia Kane-Crawford and Allen Crawford, husband and wife, are from Flintstone, Ga.

From 2000-04, Amalia and I worked for the Florida Department of Children and Families. We worked throughout Florida and learned to trust each other’s intuitions when closing cases. In 2006, my wife and I moved to North Carolina. In 2009, I was hospitalized for a quadruple bypass and again later for blood clots in my left leg. Amalia and I kept in touch by e-mail and a few telephone calls, but in June 2012, her husband’s cousin was being honored with the naming of the Chaplain Stan Beach Chaplaincy Building at Fort Jackson, S.C. Instead of driving from Georgia to South Carolina, which is only 343 miles, she and her husband drove from Georgia to North Carolina to visit my wife and I before going on to South Carolina, 466 miles out of their way. They did not have to, but they did. We had lunch and spent approximately two hours together before they continued on. The warmth and joy that she and her husband brought with them was heartfelt and so very special.

I forgot to mention that Amalia is in her 70s and Allen in his 80s.

I wish them the best and much love.

Hubert R. Ijames, Salisbury, N.C.