I Met Barry after 40 years

I went to school in Port Elizabeth, South Africa and my best friend was another boy in the same year called Barry. After we left school in 1969 we went our separate ways. I married and had two sons. My wife, myself and our two sons left South Africa in 1992 and returned to the UK. One son never settled in Europe and returned to South Africa soon afterwards. He lived in Johannesburg for many years, married and had a son of his own. We visited them approximately every two years. Then he and his wife decided to leave Johannesburg and move to Cape Town. When they had finally settled there, my wife and I decided to visit them in December 2009 – exactly 40 years after Barry and I had left school. We landed in Cape Town, hired a car and drove to my son’s house. We had just arrived and sat down together for a cup of tea, just a few hours after landing, when my UK mobile phone rang. (I had brought it with me for emergencies.) An unfamiliar voice at the other end introduced himself using Barry’s nickname from 40 years ago. Barry had decided out of the blue that morning to look up my number on our old School’s Alumni web site and call me in (he thought) the UK, and the call was, of course relayed to me in Cape Town. Not only that, but Barry was actually living in Cape Town as well. We met up for a very long and interesting reunion.