Life-long Friends

by Posted on

Jessie: On the coast of Maine where the weather is heartbreakingly gorgeous!

After nineteen novels, I have noticed a few themes or situations I revisit again and again. One of the most frequent is supporting relationships between women. During the course of my career, I’ve written about sisters, aunts and nieces, cousins, and dear friends. The book I’m working I’m finishing up right now explores several different kinds of female relationships, including mentors, mothers, and employers.

Stories come from somewhere, of course, they do. For me, the friendships and kinships I’ve enjoyed with other women have been an enormous part of what makes life worth living. I have been so blessed to have sisters, a mother, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers. I have loved aunts and friends who are older and far wiser than me. I cannot quantify the value of my female writing friends, including my beloved Wickeds.

This week, my mind has turned to friends who are more like the ones in my Beryl and Edwina novels. As I write this I am chomping at the bit for the arrival of two of my dear friends whom I first met in middle school. They are due to arrive on the coast of Maine for a few days of camaraderie and memories, both old and new. I am almost embarrassingly excited to see them.

There is something about old friends that cannot be replicated. I have been privileged to meet a number of people who have felt like we have known each other for eons. But somehow, there is still magic to being in contact with those who remember you when the world still felt new and all was possible. Who else can tell you, with complete sincerity, that you look the same as you did at twelve?

I’m lucky to have these women in my life. Our paths have been different, but that only makes things richer, and more interesting when we gather at least once each year. And I feel I owe them a debt of gratitude when it comes not only to friendship, as well as for inspiration. My characters, Beryl and Edwina have known each other since their formative years too. They took divergent roads, but have maintained a strong and meaningful connection. I am not sure that I could have written the eight novels in that series without such a rich well from which to draw.

I hope that all of you, our readers, have new, old, and fictional friends who are as valuable to you as my soon-to-arrive visitors are to me!

Readers, do you have old friends who you are thankful for in your lives? Writers, do your relationships impact your novels?

Unknown's avatar

Published by Jessie Crockett

Jessie Crockett wears a lot of hats, both literally and literarily. As Jessie Crockett she is the Daphne Award winning author of Live Free or Die and the nationally bestselling Sugar Grove series. As Jessica Ellicott she has received starred reivews from Publishers Weekly and Library Journal for her historical mystery Murder in an English Village. As Jessica Estevao she writes the Agatha Award nominated Change of Fortune Mysteries. She loves the beach, fountain pens, Mini Coopers and throwing parties. She lives in northern New England where she obsessively knits wool socks and enthusiastically speaks Portuguese with a shocking disregard for the rules of grammar.

25 Thoughts

  1. Have a lovely time with your friends, Jessie! I agree about the amazing thing it is to be with people who knew you when you were young. I have that with my sisters, my cousins, my bestie from high school, and a couple of college friends.

    Like

  2. True friends are hard to find and true “old” friends even rarer. That’s why they are treasured more than earthly treasures – like gold. They are worth nurturing, working on and keeping close to the heart even when they are miles apart. Without these rare gems, I don’t know if I could have made it through some really rough spots in my life and I give thanks for them daily.
    2clowns at arkansas dot net

    Like

  3. I don’t know if I have any old friends that I’m thankful for having in my life. The guy who was my best friend growing up, we had a falling out years ago and there’s been no desire on either side to do much in terms of patching things up. Given he lives across the country now, this is fine.

    However, I am thankful that I have who is now my best friend in my life even if Ann has only been around for the last 8 years or so. Without her, I don’t know what life would be like and I am definitely going to miss her when she leaves to travel the world in retirement.

    Like

  4. Still friends with the gal I met the first day of kindergarten. We were the two who could already read and were drawn by our love of books. I’m on my way to Maine, where she lives, for a visit right now!

    Like

  5. I’ve known my dear Carol since we were in ninth grade chorus class. We pledged the same sorority in college and were in each others weddings. We’ve lived far from each other for many years, but when we’re together it feels like home. Have a wonderful time Jessie!

    Like

  6. My best friend is a lot like this. So are my close friends from college. We can be apart for ages and as soon as we’re back together, it’s like no time at all has passed.

    I don’t think about it consciously, but I guess relationships are at the center of a lot of my writing.

    Like

  7. What a wonderful post! I have friends from high school and college that have been with me through everything in this crazy life. Thanks to the miracle of the Internet, I have reconnected with grade school friends and we picked up right where we left off. It’s a lovely feeling. The connection is like shorthand without the squiggles. We just know.

    Like

  8. This is such a special blog, Jessie! Muitissimo obrigado! I am so glad for friendships with individuals across the world that still continue to be attached and are important in my life despite the distance, and time. I am truly blessed. Luis at ole dot travel

    Like

  9. My friend Shirley and I are now both 74 years old and have been friends since we were ten. Shirley is like another sister to me. We have shared joy and sorrow over the years. As with other family members, I can’t imagine not having Shirley in my life. We live 40 minutes apart and enjoy lunch or dinner out once a week with each other and our husbands. Shirley is a treasured friend.

    Like

  10. Old friends who have been with you through life’s joys and sorrows are so important! My friend Anne and I were born a week apart in the same hospital and grew up a block apart, we’ve been friends for about 70 years. We always joke that our mothers passed in the hospital entrance as Anne’s mother ledt with her and mine arrived to give birth to me. My other oldest friend (old in the length of friendship), Susan, I met in Junior High School on a trip to see a Shakespeare play in Stratford, CT. We sat together on the bus and have been friends ever since. While I’ve never lived with either friend as Beryl and Edwina do, or investigated any crimes, we’ve had many adventures and are still the best of friends.

    Like

  11. There is nothing quite like old friends. I wish I were better at maintaining those relationships. But I must do something right for some of them because I was the best man in a college friend’s wedding on Saturday.

    Like

  12. My BFF and we were neighbors 47 years ago. She got married and she moved. We moved. But we are still besties. Saw her last year and we picked up as if no time passed. We do email each other, but there is nothing like sitting down and talking about anything and everything, no holds barred. We are both only children, but we are sisters under the skin.

    Like

Comments are closed.