A Journey 32 years in the making

Darron and Jorene’s Paris and Rhine River Cruise Adventure

July 12-21, 2026

They say a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, but our story truly began 32 years ago. Jorene and I have been through it all—the absolute highs, the heavy downs, births, deaths, cancer, marriage, and divorce. We’ve seen the good, the bad, and everything in between. There have been seasons where life got busy and we might not have spoken for months at a time, and others where we talked almost daily. But regardless of the time or the distance between us, we have always been—and always will be—deeply close in each other’s hearts. Through every single change, we have stayed side-by-side because we learned early on that embracing life’s shifts isn’t what pulls people apart; it’s exactly what makes us great friends.

I created this dedicated space to share what a genuinely wonderful person Jorene is. We are stepping into the next beautiful phase of our friendship now. Together, we honor the memory of David, celebrate the joy of Jorene’s marriage to her wonderful husband, Jit, and watch her raise a fantastic young boy, Dylan (or as I affectionately call him, Bob), to be an amazing man. I am profoundly blessed to share this grand European adventure with her.

This blog is a deliberate escape—a safe, quiet harbor to share these memories with all of my friends away from the endless noise and demanding algorithms of traditional social media. An experience this special deserves its own private space. You won’t find any negativity, division, or political rhetoric here. This is simply a space that supports love, acceptance, growth, and the beautiful adventure of lifelong friendship.

The story below feels like it was written about us.

One day, I asked a woman who had been best friends with the same person for more than forty years,
‘What’s the secret to a friendship that lasts that long?’
She smiled. Then she said, ‘We didn’t expect each other to stay the same.’
That confused me.
She said, ‘Every few years, one of us became someone new. One of us got married. One of us got divorced. One of us became a mother. One of us moved away. One of us lost herself for a while. One of us found herself again.’
Then she said, ‘Most people think friendships end because people change. That’s not true. People change. That’s what they’re supposed to do. Friendships end when we expect someone to stay who they were.’
That stopped me.
She continued, ‘Some years we spoke every day. Some years, life got in the way. The friend I had at 25 wasn’t the same friend I had at 35, or 45, or 55. If I’d spent my life demanding the old version back… I would’ve lost her decades ago.’
Then she looked at me and said, ‘The strongest friendships aren’t built on staying the same. They’re built on making room for who each other becomes.’
And suddenly, I understood something about friendship in your thirties. The women who stay in our lives the longest aren’t the women who never change. They’re the women we keep getting to know. Through the marriage. The divorce. The motherhood. The heartbreak. The reinvention. The confidence. The losing themselves. And the finding themselves again.
Because friendship isn’t loving someone for who they were. It’s loving them through every chapter of who they become.”

-Unknown