Twenty-nine years ago, four women met while attending the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia. Friendships were born during the challenges of graduate school and the process of becoming Nurse Practitioners, and a few times each year, we gather to celebrate our great good fortune in having met. We’ve been together through celebration and devastation, and have shared many a meal, a beverage, and lots and lots of laughter.

We call ourselves the Girls of August – the GOAs – (we WERE girls when we met) because during the first week of August we spend the week together. The only requirement to the location is that there must be water, whether it be ocean, bay, river, lake, or puddle. This year we stayed in a small rural location on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

A hurricane, a surgery, and Covid derailed the 2020 gathering, so this year’s vacation was a gift. A gift of time, friendship, the natural world, minimalism (no TV, no nearby stores), good food and drink, and wonderful friends.

Taylor’s Island proved to be the perfect place for those looking for a break from traffic, TV, and the fear of Covid. It was also the perfect place for the GOAs.

Cheers!