My friend Lena, who I sat next to on our first day at school, September 1958. Goodness...that'll be fifty years this year. Just like Amos said, although we haven't seen each other regularly since our 20s, whenever we do meet or talk, there is a great familiarity, as if gaps in time don't exist.

Throughout her life, my mother kept up nearly weekly phone calls and regular letters with someone who she had also met when first starting school. A couple of years before she died, I took her to visit the lady - they hadn't actually seen each other then for quite a few years - and it was such a thrill to see them chatting away and almost becoming young girls again. My mum died 3 years ago, but this lovely lady is still alive, aged 89, and I have kept up the contact with her.

- jeanie