The Power of a True Friendship
A year plus of pandemic turbulence has put friendships through the wringer. But the relationships that survive are pure gold. My daughter cheerfully returned to full-time, in-person school this fall only to discover that COVID had shattered her core group of three best friends. One girl’s family fled the city, the second missed the first several weeks of school while quarantining, and the third left for her original school—she had only joined us last year because our school offered some precious in-person days. As a result of this heart-wrenching, disorienting loss, my daughter kept bemoaning, “I don’t have any friends!” “Well, that’s not true,” I retorted, listing off the myriad playmates she runs around with on the playground at school pickup. “But those are Bethany and Kimberly’s friends,” Emily moped. Oh, the trials of being a middle child. Apparently her siblings’ buddies—while super fun—weren’t filling the void left behind from the loss of her close peers. And yet, for the time b