<p>Happy for your family, scm.</p>
<p>Bevhills: I also have a very good friend, a penpal I “met” after her daughter and I traded messages on CC. We’ve carried each other through all sorts of usual and unusual moments.</p>
<p>Lizardly, I have moved a lot as well. Some of the friendships have survived, others not. I do want to move one more time. Really want to live near the coast for my retirement years. I also wonder about i will meet new people - no kids to meet them through this time round.</p>
<p>Sadly I am not in touch with any friends from growing up or high school but my closest friends are those that I met in college on my floor freshman year, one that I met through a random roommate search when one of the college friends moved out of our apartment to get married and another roommate was needed, another through a job when we worked together in the past 10 years, and two others through DH’s circle of friends as they were either already married or significant others. Actually for one of them, she was colder with a child and I am age-wise right in the middle of her and her daughter and close to both of them.</p>
<p>
@greatlakesmom, I work with seniors and find that people who have always been able to form friendships certainly can find many good friends later in life. In a retirement community, senior housing complex, new church, senior center, etc., there are often people who, officially or otherwise, make newcomers feel welcome and take them under their wings. The seniors I know are very open to making new friends, though the newcomer does have to put herself out there and maybe try a couple of times if the first attempts fizzle.</p>
<p>For example, at my senior center, if you showed up on a Wednesday when we have 48 people playing duplicate bridge, you’d think “What a bunch of snobs - they didn’t even say hello.” Because their lives revolve around duplicate bridge. If you can play duplicate bridge you’d be highly sought after by that group (though I don’t know why you’d want to be). If you showed up on another day, you’d have a much more favorable general impression and find people who’d ask to meet you next time for lunch, go for coffee, etc. And, as in all stages of life, if you can volunteer somewhere, you’ll find friends.</p>
<p>I don’t have any lifetime friends. But fortunately, when we were in our 40s, my sister and I became friends for the first time in our lives, so I do have someone with whom I have a long shared history. But friends have come and gone. :(</p>
<p>Mine either died or moved away. Seriously. I have one very dear friend and we met at work. I do have many good friends but we’re just not super close. It has been the hardest thing of adulthood for me. </p>
<p>I’m still friends with one person from middle school, keep in touch with a few from college, but mostly my current friends are through my kids. I also have 2 sisters I’m very close to and we talk and see each other frequently. However, my best friend is my husband and I prefer to hang with him most of all, and my kids have always taken up a tremendous amount of time and focus. </p>
<p>I still consider myself very good friends with 3 of my college friends, although we don’t interact all that much anymore due to careers and miles between us. If I needed them, though, I know I could count on them (as I was able to when my mom died). I have friends I made when my kids were in school, and I see them from time to time. One of them I talk to every couple weeks. I have a couple friends from elementary and high school that I hear from once in awhile (Facebook). </p>
<p>Then there is my H - my best friend for more than 35 years. And I love his fraternity brothers dearly - I see them more than I see my female friends. My sister in law is my friend, and my brothers are my friends. I like my coworkers, although I don’t socialize with them except at work events. I am still friends with 2 former coworkers, and I do socialize with them from time to time.</p>
<p>I have never needed a lot of friends, so I am happy with my collection of “folks.”</p>
<p>My D was a bit worried about lifelong friends a couple years ago. She moved to a new town in 2012 and was worried she’d be friendless. She has been fortunate to make some excellent friends. S is outgrowing his friends, and D has told him not to worry - he will find new friends when he ventures out into the world on his own.</p>
<p>Kindergarten! We lived in a very special neighborhood in NYC on top of a hill with a lighthouse that shined out on the NY harbor. The hill allowed no commercial traffic and was kind of “isolated” in the way a top of a mountain is isolated from the base. Since leaving the hill meant a long walk down, and then up (no buses), we stayed on the hill. We became friends. </p>
<p>Our hill had lots of woods with a large frog pond for great ice skating. It is part of the green belt that includes Central Park. But I did not live in a Manhatten. Our hill also included a golf course with long, steep hills for sledding.</p>
<p>I am still great friends with these ladies even though we live all over the US. Four of us get together at least twice a year for lunch. We each travel several hours to meet at a central point. Sometimes we do other things. Two years ago we went white water rafting. A year before that 8 of us got together at one home for a weekend.</p>
<p>I love these ladies.</p>