Friendship 44:365

Unfortunately I won't be seeing any of my friends today- so have raided facebook photos to add them here. I don't see our friends too often- but the first lady here with her lovely daughter is the sort that you could call any time night or day and you absolutely know that she would drop EVERYTHING and be there for you. No question about it. I have NEVER put that into practice - but know that if I text her or email her she will reply straight back with the right sort of advice! We last saw her on the girls birthday and she is an absolute wonder with Emma. When Emma was going through a stage of screaming all day long when she was 2 - pre diagnosis, Karen and another friend at the time were the only ones who kept inviting us over and were able to 'tune out' the screams, and kept us sane!!!!!! Only later has she ever said she didn't know how we coped through that year in particular. The health officials at the time said it was important that we kept taking Emma out- but you sure find out who your true friends are. We lost contact with a few 'friends' during that time- and for this reason alone (despite her many other qualities) she will always have my friendship!

Another close friend from schooldays is Yvonne. Again we don't see each other very often- but whenever we do we catch up as if no time has passed. She's another one that braved the tough years with Emma- and is actually her godmother and had said she'd take them in if anything ever happened to us. I last caught up with her in November/December as her mum sadly passed away. Since she split with her dh she works full time and her children have lots of activities- so we don't catch up as often as we should.

I am a really shy person- but for some reason a lot of my closest friends growing up at school- and with Karen, are very strong confident people and I often wonder what they see in a friendship with me!

Two of my friends from primary school have been back in contact through facebook- and although I haven't seen them in years it's lovely to catch up with them too. I was invited to Kate's mums 80th last year- but unfortunately I was at work. But Kate and Karen feature in this photo in the middle. All 4 girls went to my primary school.
My mum will always remember taking Karen to see Grease. She picked up a hotdog she'd found on the floor and had convinced my mum she was about to eat it- never seen my mum move so fast.
Kate now lives in Portugal and was always one to swap and change jobs. After she left school and I was taking A levels she worked for an airline company. We both loved Cliff music at the time and she'd got into a sound check the day before by chatting up the crew. She popped into school and told me I could 'don' her spare uniform and pop to the Odeon with her to see the sound check AND maybe the concert after. I didn't need asking twice. Luckily my form tutor at the time would ask us if we wanted to be marked in yesterday!!!!!! It is the one and only time I ever skipped a session of school- and in my defence I didn't have any lessons that day. But the call of the concert was stronger!!!!!! I have never told my dd this story of course!!!!!! Anyway- we did see the sound check and Cliff actually sang an Everly Brother song that mentions flying at the sound check. He'd met Kate the day before. Kate got us back stage afterwards and we saw a couple of the backing singers! We were actually invited to the aftershow party- but being a completely naive school girl I had to go and catch the last bus home!!!!!! Lol what a memory! Kate has since met Cliff at his vineyard- as she runs a pr company- and I have to get one of those photos to do a layout about that!

They are meeting up on Thursday this week at Kate's mum is having a small op today and she's back in the UK. Unfortunately I can't make it.

I enjoy catching up with people on line and have met some lovely people through scrapping.

But definately my very best friend (apart from dh) is my mum. She phones to catch up every day and is the sort of mum everyone says is lovely. She's another one that puts everyone before herself and if you needed someone to be there- she would be there no matter what she'd have to do to get there. Since my sister went back to work- she still goes up and tidies round and irons for her. I am very lucky to have her- and treasure her dearly!

This prompt has made me realise that I have very few photos of my friends- and none of me together with them. I must strive to be in contact more often and take my camera along!!!! Lacking photos of me with my friends is not really surprising as very few photos of me survive the 'editing' process- going through the delete bin usually! I must try to overcome that hurdle and take a photo or two with my friends. Friendship is really important to me even though I'm not a social butterfly. I really am a bit of a homebird- but I will try to make an effort to meet up more frequently!