I still got it

A few weeks ago I received a letter from Germany. It was from a man who has known me pretty much since I was five years old. He lives across my parents place with his family, wife, a son who is my age, a daughter who is just a little younger than my brother. His son and I had been friends since Kindergarten and went through our school years side by side. My dad always joked around that I should marry him, because they had lots of property and when they will sell it there will be lots of money to be made...his dad absolutely adored me and always joked that he would love to have me for a daughter in law, so it was always a constant scheme between the two fathers, one that we as kids never took serious, and even though we hanged out a lot we were never boyfriend and girlfriend in a romantic way.
I had visited with him or his wife periodically over the fence on any trips back home to Germany. Last year when my dad passed away and I went home for the funeral, I was invited together with my mom, for coffee over to their house and we spend a wonderful afternoon reminiscing about the past and our childhood in the neighbourhood. It was a really nice couple of hours and it was very obvious that he had a hard time with my dad's passing and with me loosing my father. I also noticed that he still treated me the same way as he did when I was 18 years old and becoming of age. He made a remark to me just after my 18th birthday jokingly that he can't just call me by my first name anymore now that I have become a young lady and he from now on will address me with the respect that an equal adult will deserve. And I answered well that's exactly how it has to be from now on, I was just being a smart ass of course. But from then on I was always Miss Martina.
Well his letter made it very apparent that he still adored me the way he did when I was a little girl and was like a daughter to him, and that he respected me the way he respected me the day I turned 18, and it was nice to hear that through all of the things that life threw at me, I still had my sweet innocent small town girl charm, that he always loved about me. I am glad that some things never change and some things are just yours to keep and build on. I am glad that I still got it. :)