An online article this week asked about our best friend.

I imagine many people have a best friend, at least for a while.

Best friends seems to change a lot in this age of mobility where we move around, leaving friends behind.

Often, a best friend is someone with whom we enjoy doing things together. When we no longer can share those activities together we might look for someone who is more in tune with what we like to do.

That was the gist of the online article. The author asked the question “How old is your best friend?”

I don’t think she was asking about age. Rather, she wanted to know how long you have had your best friend.

I didn’t really have a best friend in high school. I had multiple friends. I enjoyed but I don’t think I ever considered any one person “my best friend.”

It wasn’t until I was married with a child on the way that I had a best friend.

When Priscilla and I met at a meeting it was instant friendship.

Many friendships develop over time. That wasn’t the case with Priscilla and me.

The meeting was a bit wild and we made eye contact with each other as if we were asking “Can you believe this?”

She asked if I wanted to get together that week to go to a place where could do our own dry cleaning.

They don’t have places like that today and I think I know why. Spraying that dry cleaning solution on clothes must have taken restraint Priscilla and I didn’t have. We sprayed so much solution on our husband’s shirts that I’m sure the smell lasted for days.

Our friendship didn’t last days. It has lasted for more than 50 years and it’s still going strong.

When we introduced our husbands they, too, seemed to have instant chemistry.

It’s hard to find a friendship where the husbands are also close but we did it.

The only one puzzled by the four-way friendship was Priscilla’s mother. She couldn’t imagine what the guys had in common because they were so different.

Sometimes my husband helped Frank cut apart a steer in his meat packing place; other times we all got dressed in formal attire for the Fourth Degree Knights of Columbus dance.

When Andy came down with three kinds of cancer the so-called doctor told us there was no hope. He said they would just keep him comfortable until he passed away.

Two days after his cancer surgery Frank and Priscilla drove us the Fox Chase Cancer center for another opinion. By being proactive they saved his life. Andy lived another 12½ years.

I could never repay them for their unfailing friendship.

My friend Lenny once told me people seldom have more true friends than fingers on one hand.

He knows a lot about how to be a true blue friend. That’s exactly what he’s been for me for 40 years. He and his wife Rose Ann visit and stay close across the miles.

Those long friendships are a rare gift.

My retired Florida friends say at their age they’ll never live long enough to have a 40-year friendship.

No, but they can have a favorite friend that makes life more enjoyable.

It doesn’t take longevity to develop a special friendship.

Linda is one of my very favorite Florida friends. We have so much fun laughing together on one of our Thrift store shopping trips, or simply floating in her heated pool and talking for hours. If either of us needs a helping hand we know we can count on each other.

I consider her one of my best friends yet we’ve only known each other for a little over a year.

The woman who wrote the article on long term friendships said they are priceless because they do what other newer friendships cannot do.

Longtime friends share memories from your past and can even bring back memories of a love one no longer here, she said.

I have that with Priscilla. The other day we were laughing about the time her husband got out to tie down the boat we were on but it got away from him.

He kept yelling we should drive the boat but all we could do was laugh. Her husband had to take out his wallet then swim after the boat.

Nice friend that I was, I took a photo of Frank swimming after the boat and put it in the paper. I called it “Up the creek without a paddle.”

Sharing lifelong memories makes the years melt away. Priscilla said it makes her feel good when she has someone to share her memories of her husband.

But you don’t need to have a decades-long friendship to share those stories. All a friend needs to do is care enough to listen.

The American Psychological Association research concludes having good friends keeps us healthy and helps us live longer.

I sure believe that.

It doesn’t matter if your good friend is a lifelong friend or a relatively new one.

What matters, according to the American Psychological Association, is the depth of the friendship.

If you have a caring friend that you enjoy, treasure that friendship.

It’s one of life’s best rewards.

Contact Pattie Mihalik at newsgirl@comcast.net.