Today it’s a photo of me with my best friend of 45 years, Jannelle, and it was taken in March 2019 when I was celebrating birthday number 55. The other gorgeous girl in the photo is her oldest daughter Alison, and it was Ally who had made me the yummiest birthday cake we were about to devour when this photo was taken.
Nell and I met in Year 5 at Primary School and have been a fixture in each other’s lives ever since, and she has been a wonderful constant that I have always been able to rely on. There are few women I admire more than Nell. I love 'then and now' photos, and this was a scrapbooking layout I did to celebrate our friendship in 2005 - back in the days when I was still blonde.
Nell has a son and three daughters, and they have all played a part in the lives of my family, and us in theirs. She has a cupboard in her kitchen against which the growth of all of her children have been measured, and my kids feature on there too. We are family.
Nell's baby is Emily, and she is my god-daughter. I had fun looking back over some older photos to find some of Emily from over the years.
This was at my son's 4th birthday party, so Em was probably about two.
Nell and I with Em at her confirmation in 2009
And just generally being a cutie.
And then the time just scoots away - here she is in 2019, a stunningly beautiful young woman.
When I see these photos, it makes me so aware of the blessings that come from getting a little longer in the tooth. We get to experience our own kids and the kids of our friends or siblings as children, and as they grow into adulthood they are the gift that keeps on giving, because we get to form new relationships with them as adults. It's a complete shift from what has gone before and it's so much fun.
I couldn't go past this photo of Ally, also taken at my son's 4th birthday party - that's him in the background. This was her response to being asked to smile for the camera.
Ally has always marched to the beat of her own drum and that was just a sneak preview of the unique and feisty woman she has become. To look back at photos can remind you of so many reasons to be cheerful. As I was preparing this post, guess what popped up in my Facebook memories?
This was a card I made for Ally's 21st birthday, full of reminders of her times with our family as we were all growing up. When it was my turn for a birthday in 2019, I was just a bit thrilled that Ally put to work the awesome baking skills she has inherited from her mum to make a cake for me.
This was a card I made for Ally's 21st birthday, full of reminders of her times with our family as we were all growing up. When it was my turn for a birthday in 2019, I was just a bit thrilled that Ally put to work the awesome baking skills she has inherited from her mum to make a cake for me.
Do you have a best friend? I hope you're blessed in that way, and perhaps have second generation besties too? Perhaps you're a bit younger than me, and haven't thought of the children of your friends in this way? Give it some thought. You have something special to look forward to, and believe me, they will remember everything you invested into them and their family as they grow. Reasons to be endlessly cheerful.
The song for this post has to be Queen’s You’re My Best Friend in honour of my Nell, and our next gen friends.
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