WE ARE CELEBRATING FEMALE FRIENDSHIPS WITH A SERIES OF STORIES AND WE’D LIKE YOU TO TAKE PART … DO YOU HAVE A FEMALE FRIEND WHO HAS KEPT YOU AFLOAT THIS PAST YEAR, OR ONE YOU HAVE MISSED AND LONG TO SEE WHEN LOCKDOWN ENDS? …
Where would we be without our female friends? The friends who have supported us through lockdown, made us laugh, shared our sadness and our joy, been there for us at the toughest of times, in person or at a distance.
If ever there was a time for the consolations of female friendship, it’s now. Not so much a shoulder to cry on (although sometimes that too) as an arm to lean on, a hand to squeeze, a sympathetic ear. Such is the nature of this particularly fraught and endless phase of this pandemic that nothing is quite so out of reach.
But soon we can really enjoy our friends again … what will we do, what will we talk about?
For the next ten weeks on thegloss.ie, we will celebrate female friendships with a series of stories and we’d like you to take part … Do you have a female friend who has kept you afloat this past year, or one you have missed and long to see when lockdown ends?
Tell us why your friend is fabulous, what makes your friendship work and send us a photograph of you two together. Email [email protected] or share on Instagram, using the hashtag #MyGlossyFriend.
Tetyana Maryshko and Cara Byrne
Tetyana says:
a cara
/kara/
noun,
translated from Irish – friend
She loves milk chocolate and I love dark; she loves light floral perfume whilst I go for the heaviest one; she loves being amongst people, I love solitude; she’s bubbly, vivacious and full of life whilst my RBF is enough to give small kids a fright.
She’s an extrovert and I’m an introvert.
She’s an eternal optimist and I’m forever a salty pragmatic realist.
We met in 2009.
Cara was stunning, with impeccable makeup, manners, so much class and a smile so magnetic it would make an over enthusiastic cheerleader weep.
Hers was real.
She was so out of my league.
She was #goals.
She was everything I wasn’t.
But something just clicked not despite of but because of our differences.
And before I knew it she asked me to go to her wedding dress fitting and I was like “man, this is huge” and the rest was history. We’ve been through so much together: the good, the bad, the ugly; the lost car journeys, the birth of our kids, the new mother bubbles, the 5 o’clock slumps, the comfortable silences following the 5 o’clock slumps, the forgotten phone conversations, the long, the very very long way to Tipperary, the highs, the lows, and the really really low lows! All shared between us.
We’re more different then we are the same: from the way we parent to our book choices, from fashion preferences to the outlook on life.
On paper we shouldn’t work but ten years on and yet here we are!
She’s not the kind of friend who tells you what you want to hear, she’s the kind of friend who tells you the truth.
She’s the kind of friend who’ll ask you the uncomfortable questions, sometimes the ones you’re afraid to ask yourself.
She’s the kind of friend who’ll rejoice in your joy in the same way she’ll share your grief. And she’s the kind of friend that buys you a toothbrush as a present in Paris.
Because she cares.
She’s the ying to my yang, she’s the bright to my dark, she’s the day to my night, she’s the salt to my caramel (when you know you know), she’s the normal to my crazy.
Because of her I laugh a little heartier, I cry a lot less and I smile a whole load more.
I would be totally and utterly lost without her.
A cara, mo chara, Cara.
Tetyana Maryshko and Cara Byrne
Cara says:
Trying to sum up why my friend Tanya (@javaholicandtheboy) is so fabulous is like trying to choose a favourite hair on my head. I love her for a billion tiny reasons and a million big ones.
She is my person, she is the rock that I cling to when things aren’t going well and she’s the person cheering the loudest when things are going right.
She’s smart, not just academically but instinctually. She gives the best advice when it’s needed and says nothing when she knows I need to figure it out myself.
She’s unendingly thoughtful and generous. She makes wherever she is feel like a safe haven. I rejoice in the knowledge that she always has my best interests at heart and she will always tell me the truth even when it’s not what I want to hear. She’s challenging in the best possible way, she pushes me to be braver, better.
She’s like a second mother to my kids and a second sister to me.
She is endlessly loyal, there is nothing she would give up her integrity for, nothing.
She makes me smile, every day, whether I’m with her or not. We are friends through the hard and heavy stuff as well as the ridiculous goofy fun stuff.
I love her and I’d simply be lost without her.
Niamh O’Connell and Jennie Doyle
Jennie is my best friend who I don’t see as much as I’d like to. We are as close as sisters, in fact we pal around together with Sarah who is Jennie’s sister, and my other bestie.
Jennie is a charismatic character full of life. She is a high energy gal pal, so loyal. I am godmother to Zara, one of her twin girls, who she adores and she is godmother our Kitty, who we adore.
She is a right ticket, always up for the craic-ola and someone who will put a pep in your step. She is a hostess with the mostess too and is always first to extend an invite and gather the gal pals. We call each other ‘Lov’. So to my ‘Lov’ I miss your company I ‘Lov’ you and we will have the laurfs again v soon.
LOVETHEGLOSS.IE?
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