Whether it’s eating chicken nuggets off a trampoline bed to damning up a stream in order to make a new den, my earliest memories of spending time with friends are with the Smith sisters. Since the day one of them appeared peeking over our garden wall, Jemma and Lucy have been me and my sister’s oldest friends, inseparable despite the occasional shouting match of yore and the busy adult lives we all lead today.
Besides the universally bemoaned difficulty of organising things as a grown up, us four must also grapple with the complicated geography of our lives. I live abroad, Eleanor in Leeds, Lucy in Burnley, and Jemma’s often all over the place with her job. It seemed unlikely that all four of us would ever manage to meet up, let alone organise a trip for the girls to visit me in Madrid. And yet, despite all odds, last year I found myself rushing off to arrivals, heart in my mouth with excitement and a sign in my hand reading “Smith & Briggs”.
What followed was three days of chaos in the absolute best way. We caught up over drinks, chatted the hours away over food, and reminisced in my now very full house. Between conversations in bars we moved around the city, yapping away as we went as if no time had passed at all since we were making mud pies and running through the field behind our houses back in the early 2000s.
I’ve had the privilege of making many friends in all manner of situations and from all manner of places throughout the years, but I realise now that me and Eleanor are extremely lucky to still have Jemma and Lucy as close friends with whom we can laugh until we cry over ancient anecdotes and rewatch The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking for the umpteenth time since we first discovered it on a half-broken VHS tape in the Smiths’ living room.
Reconnecting with my oldest friends was the tonic I needed as summer came to a close last year. Although I’d no way of knowing it at the time, their visit marked an absolute high before the coming low—but more of that in my next post.
To avoid ending this celebratory journey on a low note, I’d like to thank Jemma, Lucy, and Eleanor for coming to visit me and for their continued friendship, love, and support. I can’t wait for you to be back, and I can’t wait to see you all in England.
Pippi Longstocking is coming into your town!
