Point of Return

Moving home can be an opportunity to reconnect with family. But for Minda Honey and her two sisters, it meant getting to know one another in an entirely new way.

- By Muofhe Manavhela

In July, I traveled to St. Louis for my friend Ariel's wedding. I met her shortly after I moved to California 15 years ago in an Orange County Meetup group for 20-something women. I knew that other women from the group would also be at the wedding, and I was nervous. Relationships change. I'd unintentionally fallen out of touch with some of the women. Marriage, children, moves-it's just what happens across space and time. And with others, conflict had driven us apart.

When I joined the Meetup group, I was mostly looking to make new friends, because not long after I moved to Orange County, my boyfriend and I broke up. But the women in that group became more than friends to me; we were like a sisterhood. Most of us were new to the area, so we looked out for one another, from making sure each girl got home safe at the end of the night to gathering for holiday dinners. We were there through graduations, breakups, and engagements. We argued and we made up. For years, we kept coming back together for no other obligation than that we cared.

Fortunately, when I arrived at the venue, I was greeted warmly by the other women. It was as if we'd all accepted Ariel's wedding dress as a white flag. We caught up on one another's lives, talked about old times, and smiled big in every photo. The next morning, the bride and bride held a post-nuptials brunch at the hotel. I arrived early, and when two sisters I knew from my time on the West Coast entered the room, I waved them over to my table.