Best mates

I’ve had a very sad little boy this week. He’d spent the weekend with his best friend in the whole world, but of course the weekend had to end and he had to say goodbye again. M is no ordinary friend. They first started playing with each other as babies because Eldest was friends with M’s eldest brother. So while I enjoyed a coffee with his mum and Eldest and Big Brother played, Dynamo and M would chew toys together on the floor. When they got to Kindy they clung to each other for support. It got so bad that if one was sick, the other would refuse to go. Despite our best efforts to encourage them to make other friends, they still just seemed to enjoy each other’s company.

Then two and a half years ago, M’s dad took a job a thousand kilometres away (literally). I thought Dynamo would never get over it, but he did make other friends eventually. M and his family visited briefly a year later, but this Christmas we missed them because we were on holidays when they came down. So last week, M and his mum came down for a week and M stayed with us for the weekend. It was unbelievable how the two just took up where they’d left off. There was no sign of embarrassment that kids tend to have when they haven’t seen someone for a long time. They just ran off to play like old times and they didn’t stop talking or smiling all weekend.

I never had a friend like that as a child. We moved around too much. But it hurts to see how hard it is for these two to have to say goodbye. The hope is that one day they’ll come back to live here. I wait for that day. Not just for Dynamo’s sake either. I really miss M’s mum as a friend too.