The Alldredge Girls

Three traveling companions met for the first time in a hotel lobby in Philly the week before Christmas. They had been given each other's numbers because they were reluctant to travel alone in West Virginia in the dark and wanted to share a car. They came from all over the world.

They had no idea what to expect from the experience or each other, certainly not friendship. Their paths would never have crossed at all except for their sons entering the same rehab program at the same time.

Germany was early, nervous, and turned out to be a refined and insightful artist and scholar with a well developed sense of humor. She carried a neatly packed, organized suitcase and tote. She had the confidence in her step of having been down this road longer than the others. She brought the courage, the perspective.

California arrived in tennies, jeans and a Disneyland sweatshirt, the novice, afraid and wondering more about how it would play out with her ex than with the counseling sessions for her son. She brought the maps, the compassion, and an open heart.

Colorado breezed in last, with hair piled high on her head, dragging a suitcase, travel snacks and wearing boots, jeans, a long sleeve sweater and a down vest with gloves dangling out of the pocket. She was a jumble of spiritual, nurturing love with a whole face smile. She brought the confidence and car keys.

They listened and talked and laughed and cried on that six and a half hour drive, which included two detours and one rest stop talking to a man without front teeth. And together they literally and spiritually found their way. Now, three years later, the Alldredge Girls are still at it, talking about heady stuff like being who they are meant to be. They are each other's linchpin to the world they shared in those snowy months in a remote part of West Virginia. They have earned a place at the Thanksgiving table and their boys are in each other's prayers.

People say a crisis binds people together, and it did during those long, emotional days and weeks and months when the boys captured center stage. But philosophically, the real glue has been their shared belief that the journey never ends and when they falter, it is their Alldredge sister who will always be there to pick up the phone.