Simple Summer: A Gaggle of RFH Gal Pals Reunited

RFH Class of ’80 and ’79 girls reunited, Bonnie Carling Robinson, Isabelle Bruder Smth, Jill Robinson Grosh and Sue Robinson Ryle
Photo/Corie Robinson

It’s no longer 1980. But some RFH besties really can’t tell the difference nearly five decades makes, anyway.

That’s because it makes no difference to them. Not one bit. Old RFH friends just seem to pick up right where they left off — in those hallowed halls of RFH, always right in their own hometown back yards in their minds.

“Seems like old times,” is just about always the theme, as the song of old romance reignited goes. And, yes, there is, indeed, something very romantic about old friends reuniting and just picking right up where they left off decades ago. In fact, to ask these four RFH girls of the Class of 1980 (and one from ’79), there’s really no love truer than that of old childhood friends. Any tale of childhood friends reuniting is a story of love that never dies. And laughs. Laughs that just can’t be duplicated with anyone else.

Just ask these girls: Bonnie Carling (now Robinson), raised in Fair Haven, Isabelle Bruder (now Smith), Jill and Sue Robinson (now Grosh and Ryle), raised in Rumson.

Yes, it’s the greatest kind of love story there is, Bonnie agreed.

“Old dear friends are like a warm hug for your heart,” she said. “No matter how much time has passed, when you’re together again, it feels like you were just together yesterday. Talk about not skipping a beat! It’s one of the greatest gifts of lifelong friendship.”

How’d this childhood soul reunion happen? Call it a bit of a family affair, too. Well, “Isabelle and Jill came out to Wisconsin to visit Sue and me (Bonnie),” Bonnie said. “There was also a family party going on for a niece’s 40th birthday, so it was a great reason for everyone to get together. Jill and Sue are my sisters-in-law, but I’ve been friends with them, along with Isabelle, since our RFH days. In fact, I knew them before I even knew their brother!”

And that’s how it goes when life is filled with childhood friendship love and family and it all comes full circle. Never broken.

Cheers to forever RFH friendships, girls!