How do you explain a 40+ year old friendship? One whose roots predate your own existence? Where does one begin to share the breath and depth of long, intertwined connections? How does one explain the feeling of being home, with people who made up the fabric of your childhood, who saw the places and smelt the scents of your growing up? It does not happen every day, and when it does, it is like a sudden tug into a different time and place softened by the warm embrace of shared experiences.
Many, many family meals and Sunday lunches, a decade and more of St. Paul’s Cathedral sung eucharist services, school dances, birthday parties, stories of our parents’ lives as children and of course, laughter, always lots of laughter. These are the people who witnessed and were there when the chips were down, and the loss unbearable, when the sky lit up with dreams come true. People who will always remember your dearest grandmother like no one else. Who will remember the night you drank too much cheap wine. Who will remember the day you got married and when the children were born.
Time blurs and we meet all these years later and now our children are grown and connecting. The legacy of kinship continues. May there always be space to reconnect, to remember and to feel gratitude for forever friends.
Change the words 
Indeed. You’ve put it all down so clearly. May there will always be time to connect!
Wonderful that you have such a long standing friendship! Sadly, I don’t have this relationship and I love hearing about yours. Thank you!
What a wonderful narration Nitasha! Childhood friends are indeed precious! God bless.
Thank you! So lovely to see the family yesterday x
Nitasha, what a lovely tribute. This line really spoke to me: “It does not happen every day, and when it does, it is like a sudden tug into a different time and place softened by the warm embrace of shared experiences.” I am going to text my best friend from childhood (a 50 year friendship!) and let her know I’m thinking of her.
Thank you – I hope you had a lovely catch up!
It then becomes more like extended family. I can relate to the “intertwined connections”, especially when the friendships were between parents, then us and now our children, “the legacy of kinship continues”..
such a beautiful celebration of this long friendship. My favorite lines: ‘… when the sky lit up with dreams come true. People who will always remember your dearest grandmother like no one else. ’
BTW, did you happen to read Anne Lamott’s essay on a long friendship?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/03/14/anne-lamott-aging-life-friends-vision/
This is really lovely. “These are the people who witnessed and were there when the chips were down, and the loss unbearable, when the sky lit up with dreams come true.” It’s a song lyric waiting to happen.
Ah! You are too generous … just an in -the-moment capture’