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<\/a>This isn’t really my mother and Sylvia, but it could be!<\/p><\/div>\n
I really rarely realized how important having a bestie in life is to tons of people until it hit me in a personal way a few years ago. My mother was already getting up there in age when she met a totally simpatico woman in Brooklyn. Those two talked every night and saw each other as much as possible.\u00a0 (And the other woman wasn\u2019t even a widow, as my little mo was at that point.) My mother and Sylvia laughed like hyenas, discussed all the Broadway musicals, and told each other every secret they ever had. And when the much younger Sylvia left this level of life, my mother was crushed beyond belief. She really did lose her best friend.<\/p>\n
One of my\u00a0regular<\/em>\u00a0pals, (meaning\u00a0non<\/em>-best friends,) Mimi, has always made me laugh because, ever since she was a teen-ager, she\u2019s said that\u00a0every single<\/em>\u00a0one of her friends was her \u201cbest friend.\u201d She’d say things to me like, \u201cYou know Nadine, my best friend,\u201d or, \u201cEmily, my best friend, said\u00a0something to me the other day.\u201d When that amusing habit of hers began, Mimi was very young, and I explained to her that \u201cbest friend\u201d is singular; it\u2019s just\u00a0one<\/em>\u00a0person, not every person you know!<\/p>\n Karen Salkin with her old kid bestie, Ronnie Hazel, Jr.<\/p><\/div>\n But as life has gone along, I realize that I, too, have several best friends, just not in the same places, so I consider my situations to be more legit. I have my best west coast friend, my best east coast friend, my best male friend, my kid bestie, and one for my whole life; categories like that. I even have female and male\u00a0celebrity<\/em>\u00a0best friends!\u00a0 (I know\u2014I should have an awards show for all this!)<\/p>\n Mr. X has had the same best guy friend since college. Pete is actually just about his\u00a0only<\/em>\u00a0friend, as well. And that\u2019s by choice\u2014everyone<\/em>\u00a0wants to be Mr. X\u2019s friend, but he\u2019s just more into solitude. One of\u00a0my<\/em>\u00a0friends once asked him if he feels bad that he doesn\u2019t have a lot of friends, and he answered, \u201cBecause of being with the town crier,\u201d (meaning\u00a0moi<\/em>!,) \u201cI see more people in a\u00a0day<\/em>\u00a0than I would choose to see in a\u00a0year<\/em>!\u201d<\/p>\n My<\/em>\u00a0best friend in high school turned-out to be unworthy of that title, as well, as did my most recent best friend. (Another thing they had in common is that others around me had bad feelings about them.)<\/p>\n And my two best girlfriends during my clubbing life (about twenty years ago) are totally out of my life, as well. The first one got pissed that the second one and I used her hairdryer in her apartment for some crazy reason, and wouldn\u2019t talk to me anymore because of it. And then the second one just totally let me down on another occasion, and as a result, we just stopped hanging-out and even calling each other. Because of all those failed friendships, I don\u2019t really feel like I want to invest in having another local best friend at this point in my life.<\/p>\n Karen Salkin with her best girlfriend in New York, Lauren Bennett.<\/p><\/div>\n I didn’t mean to turn into Debbie Downer there for a minute. I just wanted people who don’t have besties to know that they’re not alone. And even though sometimes it’s not all it’s cracked up to be, you\u00a0can<\/em>\u00a0always still<\/em> develop a best friendship down the line. My mother\u2019s late-in-life relationship with Sylvia proves that you can make a best friend at any<\/em> stage of life.<\/p>\n And more often than not, best friends can be great. I really do<\/em> have great love for several of my friends. And can’t imagine getting through life without them. Sadly for me, though, only a few of them live anywhere close to LA!\u00a0 Carol and Patty are in Colorado, Sheila\u2019s in Ohio, Manny\u2019s in New York, Jill\u2019s in Virginia, Lauren\u2019s in Florida, Betsy is in Brooklyn, Noelle is in Montreal, and my old kid bestie, Ronnie, is in Rhode Island.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>Sadly, many of\u00a0my<\/em>\u00a0best friends (the ones I was inseparable from) throughout the years have actually betrayed or disappointed me in one way or the other. I didn\u2019t even realize that that was possible with best friends until I saw my young niece’s best friend ghost her when they were about twelve. She was crushed. She really loved having a bestie.<\/p>\n<\/a>