The Meaning of Friendship

by David Gower

dry sherry

I just need to finish off a couple of e-mails and then I can show you what to do. It might sound a bit slushy to you but it is comes from a lifetime’s experience. As I write you might see the real meaning of friendship to me.

Dearest Kate

It felt so strange and I thought it was only me but I heard on the radio this week that the biggest number of people looking for love is us – the baby boomers. It seems that we still have the thrill and excitement, the butterflies in the tummy and the nervousness of first meeting just as we did when we were teenagers.

I am so glad that you feel it too. I thought it was only me being silly and not accepting my age. I remember how when I thought anyone aged 40 was old and I always seemed to be going to funerals? I realise now that adults then had much harder lives and it was no wonder that they popped their clogs early. What an odd expression. No wonder foreigners find the English language a puzzle.

How kind you have been to me since we first knew that each other existed. I remember the day that I swiped your picture on my phone. My friend dared me to register on the website that was on TV. You would never believe how many strange characters we found. Someone even tried to tell me they had money and needed my bank details to get their fortune out of  their homeland. Another one told me I had won a lottery I had never entered. It made us wonder about who they were but when I saw your picture and read how you had described yourself I knew. It was like the adverts say ‘you were the one’. I told my friend that you looked like ‘the one’. How right I was since you replied to my first nervous message I have felt a special link between us. That is why you can have my details, that is why I trust you as a friend.

I feel that I know so much more about you and I am excited at the thought of meeting face to face although there is sadness that before we met up I have to go straight to Dad’s and arrange all the matters for the funeral and probate. It is lovely of you to offer to be with me but Dad was a very private man so it will be just me, the undertaker and the vicar. Dad was always a stiff upper lip chap and would want me to be the same.

I need someone like yourself at a time like this - your friendship and the kind words in your messages mean so much to me and you seem to understand my loss having become an ‘orphan’ just like me. We are both alone in the world now and how much I wish I could be with you this very minute.

My travel plans were almost ruined when my briefcase was taken with my cards but luckily my passport was at home safe and sound. I thought I could scrape enough to cover the air fare and accommodation on the trip from Sydney but the insurance says there will be a delay in paying me back and the bank says I left my pin numbers written down. I have no memory for all these codes and passwords. I had to be helped to log on to meet you by my friend. How sad is that? How glad I am that I never did any bank stuff on the phone, what if I had lost that too?

Having to budget for the funeral and other costs leaves me as they say embarrassed but I will have to manage as best I can until the estate is settled. The arrangements for the funeral cannot be changed at such short notice.

It was really kind of you – an act of friendship to offer to help out. I have to overcome my reluctance and accept. You must let me make it up to you when we meet. Do I sound forward? I do hope not but I am hopeful that we might start afresh together when I am back in the UK to settle. Our friendship means so much to me.

I am so looking forward to seeing you and starting life anew. I know you have estimated how much the flight and a hotel in Singapore for a couple of days should be and I will let you know when the transfer arrives safely.

What would I do without you having found someone so dear in such an unexpected way? You are a friend indeed.

Love from far away but with you soon

Tony

SEND

Dearest Andrew

It felt so strange and I thought it was only me but I heard on the radio this week that the biggest number of people looking for love is us – the baby boomers. It seems that we still have the thrill and excitement, the butterflies in the tummy and the nervousness of first meeting just as we did when we were teenagers.

You get the picture? Remember, never be greedy; once the money arrives close the account and start the next identity on your list.

The meaning of friendship in this line of work is money.