My Coffee Crew

Marlo Mackey, James Bowles and Jill Wishkoff are my coffee crew. I don’t know exactly when it began; I guess sometime when our kids were in the Lower School. I had the bright idea to sit at Starbucks every Friday morning and see who would show up to have coffee and talk with me. People would come and go, maybe just say hi and grab their coffee, others would sit and have a conversation. Marlo, James and Jill each made it a point to meet me there every Friday. Our kids had all begun at Flint Hill around the same time, and we all knew each other from birthday parties, volunteering at school, and carpool, but we weren’t that close.

What developed over the next few years was a deep friendship all based on coffee and the commonality that our children were students at Flint Hill. Sure, we talked about our kids, but we also traded stories about our upbringing, offered advice on everything from gifts for our spouses to intermittent fasting. And, we laughed. We laughed a lot.

We have celebrated birthdays, bar mitzvahs, and weddings and even met up at Disney. We have been there through both good and tough times, teasing each other along the way. Over the last few years, we haven’t seen each other as much, since our kids are driving themselves, the pandemic started, and all just being busy. I miss it.

What all began with coffee is now a group of friends that I hope to have the rest of my life. Coffee at Flint Hill is very important. There are coffees hosted by the headmaster, division directors and just purely social ones. I never miss these coffees, whatever the topic, because it is where I have made most of my friends.

So in the next couple of weeks, I will begin hosting grade-level, in-person socials. I am going to begin in the Lower School since that is where it all began for me. My hope for you all is that you too create a crew like I did.

Go Huskies!
Sibel Unsal P ’22, Parents’ Association President