Friendship Month: Forever Friends

by Gail Kittleson

Those friendships that last and last, unstained and unstrained by the decades, mean so much to us. A woman I know in her nineties cherishes two of these relationships from far in the past. She and four or five other girls grew up together in a tiny Iowa town and remained forever friends. One by one, these women pass from this world, but their memory lives on in the friends they leave behind.

What has held them together in spite of long absences, illness, marriage (and broken marriages)? I think it’s that oft-used phrase coined by Anne of Green Gables. They’re kindred spirits. Most of us recognize that unique bond, and long for it to be repeated often throughout our lives as we meet people. Because kindred spirits are very difficult to tear asunder.

Come what may, we stick together. So many types of relating have opened up to us, with the world becoming smaller and smaller. Possibilities to make acquaintances, almost-friends and true comrades abound. Sometimes, though, circumstances and attitudes stand in the way. After six decades of relating with people, I believe that true friendship qualifies as a modern-day miracle. Willa Cather wrote, Where there is great love there are always miracles.

Ah, yes. Thinking about lasting friendships brings two of my characters to mind. Addie Bledsoe and Kate Isaacs, friends from elementary school on, lived in the World War II era, a time when many lost dear friends and loved ones to the war.

Perhaps that fact heightened their commitment to one another, but Addie, a young Iowa farm wife whose husband didn’t like Kate at all, stuck to their friendship when Kate boarded a Red Cross ship to search for her husband in England. An RAF pilot, he was downed in a crash and taken to an undisclosed location in London, so Kate determined to find him.

She made a pact to correspond with Addie, who had her own battles to fight with her cantankerous husband Harold on their Iowa farm. These two fast friends’ letters back and forth across the Atlantic bound them together even more powerfully, testifying to the incredible efficacy of the written word.

Both girls maintained a Christian worldview, although life’s trials and the war certainly caused them to question things. But having a trusted pal with whom to share their questions made all the difference in the world.

One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24, New Living Translation

  Addie and Kate’s friendship certainly proved this scripture. Their story is told in In Times Like These and released in April of 2016. Their mutual commitment stood the test of time, so much so that it required a couple of sequels, one of which releases next February with Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas.

  Here’s to faithful alliances that endure!

About Gail Kittleson:

Late blooming women's fiction author Gail Kittleson writes mostly WWII stories of overcoming fear and finding one's voice. She and her husband enjoy family in northern Iowa and the Arizona Ponderosa pine forest in winter. Gail taught college expository writing and facilitates memoir writing and fiction workshops.


Leave a comment on every Chirp 'N Chatter Friendship post in September for a chance to win the fantastic virtual gift basket! (See the 09/01/2016 Gift Basket post.)