Mrs. Kayl and Me
Cathy and Julie We're pretty used to astonished looks. In fact, after 43 years of friendship, we're practically immune to all the jaw-dropping second takes. Julie Kayl is 4 ft. 11. So she says. I'd argue she hovers closer to 4 ft. 9. I'm 6 ft. 1. We've heard every "Mutt and Jeff" joke in the book. On Saturday nights I take Julie to 5:30 Mass at Blessed Sacrament. Because she's virtually blind, she always takes my arm. I slow my long stride to match her tiny one, and we pick our painstaking way across the parking lot to the church doors. I say painstaking because Julie is never in a hurry. On the other hand, I'm chronically late. It's a rotten combination. Without any urgency at all, Julie chatters my ear off all the way from the car to the church, and I resist the desire to hoist her over my shoulder to hurry into Mass. Julie, in her rambling fashion, is always in the middle of a story. In fact, she's always in the middle of several s