THE POWER OF FEMALE FRIENDSHIP

Women stay friends for 16 years on average, with experts considering it important for mental health. We speak to two women about why they cherish their mates

- SHARON WRIGHT

'She came back when I needed her the most'

Carole Mills, 65, is a library supervisor from Scarborough.

I was on Facebook in 2014 when I got a message from Rebecca. We’d lost touch more than 20 years earlier, but she said she was visiting Yorkshire and had tracked me down to see if I’d like to meet. I said yes straight away. We’d never fallen out – we’d just drifted apart. She came on a lovely summer day and met my partner, Maurice, then 71. We told him how we’d met in our 20s when we worked in IT. We chatted like we’d never been apart, filling each other in on the past two decades – divorce for us both, children for Rebecca, and radical career changes. She retrained as a teacher and I’d gone to work in Filey Library, and enjoyed seeing punk bands and dancing with Maurice.

HEARTBREAK

After that, we were on the phone to each other all the time. Then, on 23 December 2020, I set off to buy Maurice a Christmas present. I waved goodbye and told him to meet me in town later. He didn’t turn up and I kept texting