My Oldest Friend

by Marcia Barhydt, Women of a Certain Age

Do you have lots of friends? Or just a few? Would you like to make more friends at this stage of your life?

I have a friend who I call my ‘oldest’ friend because I’ve known her since high school. And it’s fun to call her old because she has the nerve to be a few months younger than I am.

We’ve been though many stages of our lives now – teen years, marriages, children, all the standard stuff. We’ve gone through periods of being too busy to speak to each other for months – and then starting a conversation as if the last time we spoke was yesterday. How amazing is that?

She said to me last week how she enjoyed being with me because I “knew where all the skeletons in her closet were”. And I say ditto back to her.

I’m blessed to have a few other special friends who I trust my life with; we are always there for each other; ready to chastise or applaud each others current activity. We share our shoulders with each other and we know exactly how to give each other exactly the right friendship that they need at the moment.

That’s what we do for each other, isn’t it? We’re there for each other. That’s what women do. I think this is a uniquely woman thing. And I think I am so lucky to be a woman, to experience this support. In our lives, other people come and go, life events occur and evolve; even the men in our lives can change. But these women are constant. Never changing. Always there for us.

You know how we all straighten up our homes before one of our girlfriends comes over? So that even our closest friends don’t know what sloths we are? Well, maybe you’re not, but I sure am!! I don’t do that when my friend comes to visit, nor does she when I go there.

The biggest reason for this article though is to thank my oldest friend for being there when I needed her to be there. I’m currently fighting a very bad infection in my leg and my girlfriend came to help me from where she lives, a 3 hour drive. And just now I called her and asked if she could come again. Guess what she said? Of course she said yes.

Thank you, Joanne.
I’m a woman of a certain age and I’m certain of what friendship means to me.