As I write this, I’m in a cafe in East London, waiting for my daughter, who is at a birthday party. I’ve hit a stage where I’m doing drop-off parties for my daughter, and out of the corner of my eye I can see two women who must be in their 60s, or possibly 70s.

They are laughing, like really laughing. They have thrown their heads back a couple of times and one of them has wiped her eye as she’s been chuckling. Between the laughs, they look like they’ve know each other for years, the type of friends that have memories together. I can’t tell if they have a regular catch-up or if it’s an overdue one, but whatever kind of coffee catch-up it is, they seem extremely happy to be in each other’s company. So as I decided to use this time to write my newsletter, it got me thinking about the beauty of growing old with friends.

Even if I hadn’t had seen those two women in the cafe, maybe I was always destined to write about this topic and especially this year. I lost a friend I thought would be in my life forever, and after seeing a few friends have health scares in their 30s, I genuinely believe that, as women and especially as black women, friendships in later life are vital.