Stay in touch: the secrets of a lifelong friendship

Have you lost touch with childhood friends and would you like to meet up them again? Have you recently reunited and are there stories to tell? If so, we want to hear them and the most inspiring entry will win a weekend away for four friends in Strandhill, Co Sligo

Having the same friend since you were three is a bit like having a sister that you choose to remain related to.  They know more about you than anyone; they’ve witnessed the awkward hairstyles, the questionable boyfriends, the purple shiny flares and yet, they haven’t run a mile and neither have you.

Sarah-Grace Keane of Bray, Co. Wicklow is my chosen sister and despite years of witnessing my lesser moments, remarkably I’m hers. The earliest memory I have of Sarah-Grace is bonding with her at age 5 over a pair of green frog wellington boots that had eyes and belonged to Shelly Ager. Notwithstanding the year and a half I decamped to discover boys, we have been side-by-side ever since.

As you can imagine there’s been some considerable ups and downs. From playing shop by the bins with Darragh Walsh, to getting caught stealing cookie dough, to learning to shave our legs and first kisses in school bushes; Sarah-Grace has been there to witness it all. There have been tears and laughter; blood, sweat and vomit; happy moments; sad moments and moments I’ll hold in locked in my heart.

Life-long friends are the constants. They’re the people who are there to hear the tree fall in the forest. They not only know the person you are, but the person you were. They remember the time you thought your heart was breaking; they were on the end of the phone when you got the job and they’ll tell you when you are getting a little obsessive about that tinder date.

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They’re the home phone numbers that you’ll never forget; the parents you can treat like your own; the faces in all your photos and the writing on the dog-eared postcard hanging from your mirror.  They’re the people that know the plan, because you planned it together.

I’ve already been to one of Sarah-Grace’s weddings (David Webster, aged 8, the Wendy House) and I imagine we will experience a good few more ‘life events’ together.  I can almost picture our lives panned out in front of us. We’ll get older, our kids will be friends, and we’ll go on long walks where we’ll laugh at our ageing selves; we’ll have dinner parties in grown-up houses, take up golf and start a book club.  Of course unexpected twists and turns will place, as they usually do, but the point is, she’ll be there.

It’s not easy to keep friends, constant effort must be made. With the busy lives we all lead, it’s so easy to lose touch, even with the technology available. Reply texts reading “Sorry, have had a mad week” quickly become “Hey stranger, we’ve really got to catch up soon”, and then before you know its “Wow, it’s been forever”.

Of all the investments you can make, the pay off in keeping in a friend is the biggest. I’m sure it’s true that people with a small group of close friends live longer, more healthy lives.  And even without the health benefits, no one can deny the pleasure in sitting down for a catch up with someone you love.

So, you know that person you’re thinking of?

Go and pick up the phone.

And Sarah-Grace, dinner next week?

Have you lost touch with childhood friends and would you like to meet up them again? Have you recently reunited and are there stories to tell? If so, we want to hear them and the most inspiring entry will win a weekend away for four friends in Strandhill, Co Sligo.

The prize which is organised by surfholidays.com includes:

Two nights' stay in Strandhill Lodge and Suites for four people including breakfast;
Four seaweed baths in Voya Seaweed Baths;
Lunch in Shells Cafe plus a copy each of Shells' Surf Cafe Cookbook;
Dinner for four in The Venue Bar;
Four surf lessons from surfholidays.com;
Kayaking for 4 with Sligo Kayak Tours;
Lunch in the Strand Bar.