Most people can agree that as you grow older, your group of friends gets smaller. Not in a sad way, it just means that as life goes on, we have less time to spend with people who don’t make us feel good. Or sometimes there’s no negative tie to it — sometimes people just grow apart due to busy lives. It is a completely natural part of the process that everyone goes through.
It’s especially rare for two people to stay good friends when they become seniors.
Time gets in the way sometimes, but sometimes it doesn’t… Especially for these two ladies. They have maintained their close friendship for nearly 80 years now and are showing no signs of slowing down. Spoiler alert: it is the most adorable story you will hear all day.
Olive Woodward and Kathleen Saville have been close their whole lives and now, after being friends for 78 years, they are the closest they have ever been after moving into the same senior care home.
The two women met in 1941, they were just 11 years old. They were sitting next to each other in class at Ravenshead School, Nottingham. We don’t know about you, but most friendships that start at age 11 rarely go all the way to senior ages!
When they met in school, they already lived down the road from each other, as if it was meant to be from the very start. As their lives continued, their husbands worked at the same company, Coal Board, so not even their families tore them apart. Because of their husbands’ jobs, they also continued to live close to each other.
It was easy for them to keep a close bond, so they grew up together.
There is one sad part of the story, though. In 1989, after 35 years of marriage, Kathleen’s husband passed away. After this, she decided to continue living on her own. That is, until last year.
She recently decided to move into Berry Hill Park care home in Mansfield.
In 2004, Olive’s husband passed away. He lived 15 years longer than Kathleen’s husband. Though she has 2 daughters, 5 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren, Olive was also living alone. That is when she decided to finally move into the same home as Kathleen.
Why not, after all? If your best friend is already there, the two might as well get some quality girl time together while other family members can still continue to visit.
To make it even cuter, Kathleen and Olive are the two oldest residents at the care home.
If you ask the two ladies what their secret for maintaining such a longstanding friendship is, they will tell you that they never say what they think. They also never argue. Sounds easy!
It seems like at this point in their lives, they are just happy to be together and have a laugh.
“We sometimes have to knock the staff into shape. I just raced one of the managers down the hallway for a laugh,” Kathleen joked. “I’m so glad Olive is here now, we’re like giggling schoolgirls and we still put on our lippy and get dressed up. We always say to each other ‘if you’ve got it, flaunt it.’”
Friendship goals!
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