Sixty years of friendship came full circle for two Virginia Beach moms at the Oceanfront on Sunday when their daughters surprised them with a special Mother’s Day gift.
Brenda Price Frame and Linda Mapstone were ushered individually by their daughters to a boardwalk bench on 14th Street — near the same spot where the two friends had met when they were about 10 years old. There, on the bench, was a plaque dedicated to the women and “a lifetime friendship that started here on 14th Street.”
“Happy Mother’s Day,” it said. “Love, Your Girls!”
Mapstone laughed and cried happy tears at the presentation; Frame usually doesn’t get emotional, but she also broke down at the surprise, said Jodie Lee, one of her daughters.
“The love they must have put into it just to think about something like that and to get us together down there is just amazing,” Frame, 70, said later in a phone interview.
Lee got the idea after her mother’s cousin died from cancer and her family dedicated a bench to him near the pier. She and her sister, Tammy Amos, got together with Mapstone’s daughters, Ginny Mapstone, Patty Rice and the late Wendy Hilbourn, to begin planning the surprise.
“I thought, why wait until someone’s gone to recognize them?” Lee said.
Frame, 70, and Mapstone, 71, met at a bench on the boardwalk. Mapstone looked upset, so Frame introduced herself. She learned Mapstone’s family had to move out of its apartment and was searching for a new home. Frame suggested she and her family move into her apartment complex.
Mapstone told her mom about the idea and soon after they were moving in above Brenda in the apartments on 14th Street.
“We just went everywhere and did everything at the beach,” Frame said.
The pair explored the beach, attended high school together and worked at a restaurant where they both met their husbands. Later, they were maids of honor in each other’s weddings. Lee said she learned about real camaraderie through the women’s stories of growing up together.
“It’s not just been a friendship, it’s been a family-ship,” Mapstone said. “I would not trade the friendship I’ve had with her over the years for anything out there.”
Mother’s Day was particularly emotional this year for Mapstone, whose daughter Wendy died about a month ago. Hilbourn had contributed to the project with Lee and the other daughters and was excited about it, Lee said.
Mapstone said her late daughter’s hand in the surprise made it that much more special.
“You should let them know that you honor them while they’re still alive,” Lee said. “Sometimes, people just don’t tell each other until they’re gone.”
Learn more about sponsoring benches and trees in Virginia Beach here.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misidentified Linda Mapstone and Brenda Frame in the above photo.
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