What's a few years between good friends?
Kate Coleman  You have wonderful friends.  That was something my mom said to me many, many times. She and my dad also had wonderful friends, but since they lived in the same New Jersey county for all of their lives, most of their friends were local. I had gone away to college, moved south and married, so my friendships were more geographically diverse. Most of my parents socializing included my sisters and me, my parents siblings and kids. Family. Pretty much, just family all the time. And that was fine, just fine with me. My mother was right. Some of my friends are relatively new  people I have come to know in more recent years  through work, through moving to a retirement community, through friends of friends. I consider myself especially fortunate to have many longtime friends. Although we may not live close to each other or see each other often, we can pick up from where we left off even if it has been years since we last connected in person. More Kate:Kate Coleman: All kinds of weather, we stick together  Don't miss:Friends forever  Recently, I reconnected with a few of those longtime friends. Even though our hair has turned gray  certainly a sign of advanced age; I will not say old age. Yes, some would say that Im in denial. I say, "So what!" I have heard people say, "age is just a number." I guess I agree with the sentiment, but I think the expression is obnoxiously pointless. But back to the friends. It has been a few years since I saw Ellen and Charlie in person. They live in the Washington, D.C., metro area and both are retired from their work as congressional staffers. We met through mutual friends about 40 years ago. Yikes. I guess I am old. Because Im not really good about frequent communication, we haven't stayed in really close touch. It doesnt matter. We picked up pretty much from where we left off when they recently visited. We were amazed to hear out-loud that our kids are now in their 30s and 40s. Our lives are different from the early days of our friendship, but the connection is very much intact. I recently reconnected with another longtime friend. JoAnne and I met in 1968. We had next-to-each-other tiny single rooms on the third floor of one of the two freshman dorms at Rosemont College. She was a math major, and I studied English. Despite that, we became good friends. It was through Jo that I met my former husband. She married her longtime beau, they moved to California, and although theyre no longer together, JoAnne stayed in the Golden State. Josie  I gave her that nickname  came East last month and spent a few days with me. Friends asked what we did, thinking, I suppose, that we took in local attractions or at least went out for a nice dinner. Nope. We did nothing. We did talk and talked, and talked and talked. That's what friends of more than 50 years do. Yikes, again. I am definitely old, and with friends of such duration, happily so. Kate Coleman writes a monthly Lifestyle column for The Herald-Mail.