Have coffee together, even if it’s on the phone
Heidi Frederick isn’t bothered by geography when it comes to sharing a cup of coffee with her long-time best friends. “No matter where my BFFs are, we have coffee together as many mornings as we can. All I need is homemade coffee and speakerphone and it’s like we are together!”
Identify your bond, even it was from ages ago
“Somehow, amidst the chaos of labour and delivery, my mother and her mother befriended one another in the maternity ward,” tells writer Abbie Kozolchyk of her decades-long friendship with Catalan Conlon. “So we – the fruits of their labours – have been friends from birth: I was born October, 1969, and she was born on the 9th. We’ve since travelled through life together, sometimes figuratively (seeing each other through marriage and divorce, for example) and sometimes literally (we make a point of taking periodic trips together, especially because we haven’t lived in the same city since we were little kids). We’ve long joked that we’ll be the centenarian ladies chasing after the cute orderlies in the old folks’ home – and I’m not so sure we won’t.”
Don’t be afraid to work at it
Real friendship is an ongoing, never ending work in progress, and that’s something Stacy Lettie knows so well of her 30-plus year friendship. “Friendship takes work and planning, but true friends fall in step with each other no matter how long it’s been. Our favourite tradition is that every New Year’s Eve since 1998 we have gotten the families together. We cook a big fancy meal and stay up half the night playing karaoke or some other silly game. We always have a family sleepover and each year it’s at a different house.” Young children are generally excellent friend-makers. Read about one friendship that broke down all age barriers.
