Losing touch

Last week, for reasons I won't go in to here, I had the pleasure of reuniting two sets of long lost friends.

A couple were celebrating their Golden wedding anniversary and wanted to find some wedding guests they had lost touch with over the years. It was a wonderful moment when they met up, with the obligatory hugs and kisses, and the 'you haven't changed a bit' (even though they blatantly had, I mean, look at them...).

There is one thing that nags me about the whole thing though. It turned out that these friends hadn't seen each other for 49 years. The more mathematically astute amongst you will be able to work out that these people managed to drift apart from each other just ONE year after the wedding. What made it worse was that they all lived in the same city for all of that time, yet never stayed in touch. Why?

Anyone who didn't know the back story would have walked in to that living room at that moment and assumed they'd stumbled across four very close friends reminiscing about the 'good old days'. Every story was warmly recalled by all, and would then always lead on to another equally great story of great friendships. I heard tales of trips to Weymouth, of Vespas breaking down, and of brick-theft (there really wasn't much to do in those days). These people were clearly very close.

I'm worried. I don't want to lose touch with my friends like these people had. Yes, when they finally met up again it was as if they'd never been away, but I can't help thinking about how many more memories they could have squeezed out of those 49 years. How many more trips to Weymouth could they have enjoyed? How many more motorcycles could they have destroyed?

Brick theft is frowned upon in this day and age...

I'm pretty good at keeping in touch with mates I don't see often. But am I good enough? Is a little text every now and then sufficient? I never did find out why this particular group lost touch, I didn't feel it was right to ask. Yes, it was a shame they'd lost so many years together, but the most important thing is that they had found each other again, and could now start to make up for that.

So, if you live in Weymouth and part of your garden wall goes missing, you'll know why...