Monday 8 August 2016

Friendship

Today, the adorable grandchild arrives for his farm fix. When he returns to the city his best friend will be gone, sucked up into the tornado of  family relocation.
It had all the makings of a deep and life long friendship. Their teacher commented it wasn't often she saw such a strong bond between two first graders. I feel for my little guy.

When I was his age I had a perfect friendship. Too young to think about it deeply, we simply connected on a plane known only to us. Time stopped and the outside world disappeared. We could play for hours with barely a word or giggle about nothing for the same amount of time. We lived in the moment and never thought about tomorrow.

But tomorrow came along with a huge moving truck.  About a year later we ran into the family at an air show. No great exclamations of joy, we just began to play immediately. I remember we spent hours exploring a great pile of wood and rocks while everyone else was awed by the 'planes. Then her Dad called her and she was gone.

How far did they move, I wonder. People didn't drive as far as they do now so if both families turned up to the same show I suspect the distance wasn't huge. No effort was made to help us keep in touch, no letters or summer holiday visits. Perhaps our friendship would have waned but perhaps not.

Don't worry, little guy, your mother knows the value of a lifelong friendship. Arrangements have been made. Meanwhile, at your age, there is an ebb and flow of friends and new connections will begin and end right through to college.

As for me, of course I made new friends and yet

Queenie Baldwin, who went to Ringsfield school in Suffolk, England and played with Susan from a neighbouring farm, after a half century, I still miss you.

Harper Collins book quotes

7 comments:

  1. You brought up an excellent point about no effort being made to keep children connected. I guess no one "thinks" how important that is. Glad your grandchild will be able to keep in touch with his friend.

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  2. Is n't that strange. My grandson of 7 had a friend at school, they were always together, playing, having dinner at each other and sometimes staying. Last year his friend moved from the Netherlands to Washington, it was rather an abrupt end of friendship, they should write and email but it slowly stopped. Obviously that's life......
    I love that quote of Charlotte, Charlotte's Web was and still is the favorite children's book of my eldest daughter.

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  3. such a beautiful heartwarming post

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  4. I remember that hurt, and still remember my friends name. We were 7 years old and she was a foster child being cared for by a relative. After a year, she returned to her parents. It was sudden and we never got yo say good bye. I hope life turned out well for her.

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  5. What meaningful words Sue - lucky grandson with his grandma and mom so aware.

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  6. It is so much easier for youngsters to keep in touch with one another today - email and Facebook make it possible to fill in the miles apart.
    One of my granddaughters has a great friend, their mothers knew each other whilst pregnant, so they feel that they have been bonded since before birth.

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  7. I have no friends from childhood - don't even know where anyone is. My oldest friendship dates back to 1987 and endures to today, even across a continent - in fact, we have plans that involve Kingfisher for April 2018 - a significant birthday for me and a five-year cancer-free celebration for her. I am happy to make new friends, on the ground and in Blogdom. They make life just that much richer!

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