<p>I have some lady friends that go way back to elementary school. We were raised in an isolated neighborhood (geographically) in NYC. ( On a hill in one of the boroughs called " Lighthouse Hill"). All of us (except one) moved away from the borough. We were best friends in various grades and some in each others weddings. Some remained in contact. Others, like myself, moved away and lost contact with all of the women.</p>
<p>About 20 years ago (we are now in our 50’s) we all reconnected. We got together every two years with family after that. We lived near and far. Two years ago just the ladies ( 8 of us ) got together for a great weekend.</p>
<p>In the last 5 or so years four of us who live closer to each other have been getting together several times a year ( a several hour drive for each) for lunch, a few glasses of wine and lots of laughs. This past June the four of us went white water rafting ( stayed at one of the ladies for the weekend). Also attended one of the ladies D’s wedding this summer.</p>
<p>I consider these ladies my closest friends. ( My sister and D’s are my others). We have known each other forever , grown apart and come back. I love them. I tell them everything, want their input on things and can just “talk” to them. </p>
<p>It’s amazing that we live far apart and have lived very separate lives miles apart and yet connect and really enjoy each other. I met some of my best friends in kindergarten or before.</p>
<p>Where did you meet your best friends?</p>
<p>So what are your stories about close friends?</p>
<p>My best friends are a group of 6 --we were all in a sorority together and remained friends for 25 years. Sadly, we are now 5, as one died on Friday and we are attending her funeral Tuesday, so the pain is pretty fresh. She had battled cancer for the last 9 months.</p>
<p>One of my two best friends I met in 1980 when I was dating her brother my freshman year of college. She was dating her brother’s roommate who was also a friend of mine. When her brother and I broke up, I lost touch with all of them. Fast forward to 1988 when DD was born. I was watching the paper for birth announcements and happened to see that a baby girl had been born to a couple with the same names as my old friends. I was so excited that they’d gotten married, moved to the same city where DH and I were, and had a baby girl just a few weeks after us. I immediately got out the phone book to look them up and realized they lived less than three miles from us. I called her up, told her to put that baby in the car and come to my house for lunch right then. She did and we’ve been inseparable since. We now (for the past ten years) live in the same neighborhood and share a fence with a gate that leads into one another’s back yard. They had another daughter in 1992 and their girls are like our own. The same for our DD with them. The grandparents of both families are even called “Grandma” and “Grandpa” by all three girls. When our DD and their oldest DD graduated high school in 2006, we had individual parties in our back yards, but left the gate opened for people to go back and forth because we share the same friends and our families all know one another. If we go out of town for the weekend, they keep our dog and the same goes if they go out of town. </p>
<p>BFF 2 came on the scene in 1998 when BFF 1 and I worked at the same pediatrician’s office as she. The three of us immediately clicked and it’s like we’ve known one another all our lives. I left there in 2000 to become a school nurse and, shortly thereafter, another school in our district needed a nurse so I told them about it and one of them got that job. The next year, the other got a school nurse position in our district so we now all work in the same district within 2 miles of one another. We love one another like sisters and our families are all extremely tight. The three families have vacationed together for years and we celebrate birthdays and holidays together.</p>
<p>I am incredibly lucky to have such wonderful friends!</p>
<p>Two of my best friends are from middle/intermediate school. One moved to NM & the other to LA, CA. My sibs, one SIL, parents, kids & H are my other best buddies. I also have a few friends that I’ve been close to for the past 30 or so years–one dated my brother’s buddy. After they broke up, she & I remained friends & she introduced me to all her friends that she’s known since they all attended kindergarten together. One of her friends is a couple who went on a summer 6-week Taiwan tour with me decades ago. Our friends have become friends as well.</p>
<p>Some of my other friends are due to health issues and some are folks I have met through the non-profit I have started. It’s been very interesting.</p>
<p>Interesting about some strong groups of friends. I had several good friends in HS, but we were not all a group of friends, so getting together as a group would not make sense… My family has gone on vacation/skiing with one of them (with their family) and then attended her wedding when she remarried. Also attended her s’s wedding (and saw a mutual friend from HS there). </p>
<p>Others have become the “keep in touch on birthdays and holidays” friends, and none of us live anywhere near each other. </p>
<p>I have a friend I worked with in the summers 40 years ago and we’ve stayed friends and she now lives nearby, but she is divorced and has no kids, and I find that this affects our interests and general outlook, to put it politely. My other friends don’t enjoy being around her too much, so I see her separately. </p>
<p>I have developed many lovely friends here, but only a handful are a group who all do things together (there are 4 of us). They were a group of 3 who I befriended and really like all of them. </p>
<p>I am very impressed by the enduring strong bonds several of you describe. Thats truely special.</p>
<p>I met my best friend at a Newcomers Club meeting about a year after I moved to the USA. I asked her when her baby was due, she told me her baby was 6 weeks old. We have been best friends ever since. </p>
<p>We became even closer when her 2nd child was diagnosed with liver cancer at 3 months old and I spent many hours at the hospital with her. We have lived in separate states about 600 miles apart for nearly 14 years now, but have stayed very close and talk often and get together when we can. We have seen a lot more of each other over the last year as, when my husband was diagnosed with a difficult to treat cancer, she strongly encouraged us to come to M D Anderson in Houston where she lives and has insisted we stay with her on our many visits since treatment started. Truly a great friend through good an bad. She is family.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl - I am so sorry about your friend.</p>
<p>Had elementary friends, had high school friends, but my best enduring friendships are people I met in a bar. Might sound odd to some, but for those that don’t know I was in DJ biz for just over 10 yrs, and bars were primary source of income. So, don’t picture me drunk on a bar stool- I was working in the bars and those I met were regular customers.
2 of the girls we(wife and I) buddy with are girls I dated back then. I’m happy married, so are they, but we all have remained friends enough to be very comfortable socializing with them and their hubs.</p>
<p>Four of my best friends are from my college sorority. I am very active in politics and I met my best “newer” friends through that. I also have good friends from when my D rode horses. Horse/barn moms have lots of bonding time.</p>
<p>My two closest friends are from elementary school. One still lives in NYC and I see her on a regular basis. The other lives in Albuquerque, and the last time I saw her was nearly 15 years ago, but we keep in touch by email and very long phone conversations.</p>
<p>I’ve made some close friends in the last 20 years, mostly the moms of my kids’ friends. The kids are now in/graduated from college, but the parents have stayed close and we see each other often.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl - I’m so sorry for your loss. I hope you can find comfort and support in your dear friends who also loved her. </p>
<p>I met my closest friends at the bus stop when we moved to a new neighborhood. It was pretty idyllic, we all knew it was a special place, and knew we’d never find another neighborhood like that again. We all slowly moved just before the housing bust, ‘trading up’ and nearer to the hs to avoid rezoning that was sure to happen. We are still within 20min of each other, our kids trickling off to college, and we stay in very close contact. Our kids are also very close, although only one case of inter-dating which ended as friends when they left for college (whew! That involved one of mine). I feel very blessed to have these ladies, and their families, in my life.</p>