Eric with his 98-year old mother

Eric with his wife Gail

Eric with us.

One day about five years ago, I received an email from Eric Schneider, no relationship to my father’s family. For the first 22 years of my life I was Lois Schneider. Eric and I met in 1966 at Fairchild Publications where we both were copyboy/copygirl, aka messengers.

We were different as day and night. He came from a well to do real estate family and I came from a lower middle class working family. He wore dapper clothes, I wore bargain basement. He was a wordsmith, I couldn’t string a sentence together.

Somehow we were both promoted to reporters in less than a year. Eric probably felt entitled. I was forever grateful. He went on to being a big shot in the textile business with years of reporting and then finally starting his own chain of publications. My 11-year journalism career covered consumer electronics and major appliances before opening a PR agency focused on the tech industry.

Eric and I lost touch for a few decades even though I often read about his success. Then one day in the middle of my hundreds of emails from reporters per day asking me questions about our clients, Eric sent me a message asking if I was the Lois Whitman-Hess who used to be Lois Schneider from Home Furnishings Daily. He had seen my name on a recent press release that was sent to him.

I answered “yes” and then we hooked up on the phone catching up. During that conversation he revealed he and his wife Gail had a second home in South Beach. I didn’t believe him at first because we had one there too. I thought he was kidding me. It turns out he lives a few blocks away.

We see each other in Miami Beach, rarely New York. Tonight is different. Eric and his wife Gail invited us to his 65th birthday party in some fancy Scarsdale country club. He warned us in advance, dining and dancing. Lots of dancing.

I am writing this post 3pm on the afternoon of the party. I will take pictures and post them with this entry later. All I wanted to express is how one little email can start a brand new journey.

Happy Birthday Eric.