We all experience friendships. It’s part of life.
Most of us start making friends as early as our toddler years, and continue to develop friendships during our childhood, teens, college years, adulthood and beyond into retirement and old age. While friendships come and go, the stories, lessons, adventures, and feelings of those friendships stay with us. Stories about friendships can always make for interesting and meaningful conversation between you and an elderly person.
Think about this. The definition of what 'friend' means or what you expect out of friendships morphs as our age, experiences, surroundings, priorities, and/or interests change throughout life. An older person can easily have a lot to share on the topic of friendship. They’ve lived more, seen more, learned more, and experienced more, so their stories of friendship are bound to hold bits of wisdom and insight we can all learn from.
As an added bonus, you have your own friendships today, and may have curiosities or questions you'd ask a person with experience. Perhaps you find yourself needing to handle challenges, or make the most out of an already-great friendship, or help your kids . Presenting your circumstances to an elderly person and asking for their perspective is not only a great way to get a little help, it's also a meaningful way to connect with them and make them feel like they helped someone that day.
Here are a few prompt ideas to get a conversation going in this direction:
- How do you define a good friend?
- What is the most meaningful friendship you’ve ever had?
- What made it so meaningful?
- What is your greatest memory with a friend?
- Do you remember the kinds of games you and friends would play?
- Have you played any of those games recently?
- If I brought the materials, would you teach me how to play?
- Did you have a friend in your life who taught you a lot about ______? (love, their career, confidence, being a parent, cooking, etc!)
- Growing up, what did you and your friends like to do to celebrate New Years Eve?
Enjoy! xxC
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| So many friends! Here's a photo of some of the gals who came out to celebrate my sister's bachelorette party. Friends of all ages and from all different parts of her life. So amazing! |
