I don't have that many friends. But the few friends that I have, I am lucky to be considered their friends, and I am thankful. I can not name them all here, but I can tell this story of one of my friends, Mrs. Lafferty.

Mrs. Lafferty is way over 90 now. I met her when I was switching careers from being "a poor mad scientist" to a businessman. I was going broke being a scientist. So I did some research and found that many people come to this country because it is a land of opportunities. "What am I doing in a lab studying, working, researching, and being broke at the same time?" Just a side note, I am still broke, but that is another story for another time.

I thought since I could do physics, I could do anything. Door to door selling was my first business training. I found my own products, and I did my own selling. Mrs. Lafferty was my first door to door customer. We became friends for over the next 20 years.

During those interesting business years, I was put behind bars once. Yes, I was in jail, and I had to call some friends to bail me out. I could not call my own family. You know why. So I called Mrs. Lafferty. I did not even have a chance to explain what I did to be locked behind bars; Mrs. Lafferty said, "I will come and bail you out."

That was a friend for you, unconditional. She did not need to know why or how or even where I was in jail. She took off to Fairhope Police Department and asked for "Van." They did not have anyone there by that name. She drove to Daphne Police Department. They did not have anybody there by that name either. She was confused at this point. Remember we did not have a cell phone at the time. I mean cellular phones, not the phone used in the jail cell. Having no way to contact me, she drove back to Fairhope. She went into the police department and asked again. This time she asked them to check everywhere for me. She said, "He must be here because he called me."

The police department went and look everywhere in the prison cells. I was no where to be found. Mind you, the Fairhope Police Department is not that big. After all, Fairhope is a great community. We don't have a need for a big prison system.

Finally one of the police officers said "You mean James Bond. I know where he is. He is in one of the cells that we used for people who were trying to raise money for cancer by calling their friends to bail them out."

Mrs. Lafferty found me and bailed me out. She said, "You almost gave me a heart attack." That was a real friend. Thank you Mrs. Lafferty. I still have tears today thinking about her. She is always a special friend in my heart.