Childhood best friends reunited after 60 long years: 'We have many years to catch up on'

Friendship is a beautiful relationship. While some friendships tend to come to an end as we grow in life, there are some rare and special ones that are meant to last forever. No matter how many years pass by, the connection and the bond stay alive. Irene Gresty and Janet Henderson were best friends when they were kids or as they describe themselves: “joined at the hip.” They played together and have “fond memories of sticking for each other,” as reported by the Independent.

Gresty and Henderson, now 80, grew up in Linlithgow, West Lothian. They were neighbors during the 1940s but lost contact once they got married, Gresty moved abroad with her husband who was in the navy. However, when she had to retire, she moved back to her hometown. Gresty and Henderson both lived close to each other for three long years but didn’t know the other was close by.

Gresty despite living in many countries, loved her own country, Scotland: “I loved the area growing up so wanted to settle down to enjoy retirement.” Thanks to a technology event hosted by Bield Housing and Care, a charity with developments to support residents over 55, finally they met each other. Gresty said, “We sat down beside each other and she turned to me and said ‘Is that you Irene?’ and I just laughed and said ‘Yes, Janet.’” They couldn’t believe that they were meeting each other after so long. They spent the rest of the afternoon talking to each other, according to STV News.

Greston said that they instantly knew “who each other were.” “She said her mind was made up that it was me. I’m very glad she said something as the last time we’d seen each other was a long time ago.” She added, “I can’t believe my luck that it happened, I was delighted to have seen her again.” 

Henderson said that it is usual in life for “people to often move away from the area and lose contact.” As their surnames changed Henderson couldn’t recognize her friend’s name despite being told about her. Henderson said, “I hadn’t thought anything of it when someone told me Irene had moved back to the area as I didn’t recognize the name – so when I saw her at the event it was pretty surreal.”

The two have vowed to never stay long without seeing each other. Henderson said, “We exchanged numbers so I’m really looking forward to meeting up in the future, we have many years to catch up on.” Tracey Howatt, director of customer experience at Bield, said: “We often have friends reuniting after not seeing each other for a long period of time, but I don’t think we have ever had anything like this before."

In another story of friendship, a couple Debbie and Brad Thompson helped out their couple friends – Christine and Ron Morales, not once but twice. Debbie and Christine have been friends since they first met in third grade. They both grew up together in California and remained close through their high school cheerleading team and eventually lived together after graduating high school.  And when Debbie came to know that her friend had polycystic kidney disease, she was ready to donate her kidney. And in 2020, Christine’s husband Ron had Type 2 diabetes and needed a kidney transplant, Brad donated his kidney.

"This is something we're very thankful for because we have two kidneys," said Christine. "Thankful for Debbie and thankful for Brad for the gift of life."