A pair of Scots pensioners who were childhood best friends before sadly losing touch 60 years ago have been reunited following a chance meeting. Irene Gresty and Janet Henderson were joined at the hip as youngsters and even lived next door to each other in Linlithgow, West Lothian.
After getting married, Irene moved away from the area when her husband was deployed by the Royal Navy before setting up home in a host of different countries including Singapore. But when she moved back to a sheltered housing complex in her hometown three years ago, she often wondered about her old pal Janet.
Little did she know, her best mate was living just minutes away in a different housing complex run by the same firm, Bield. Their paths finally crossed at an event held by the charity with the duo, both now 80-years-old, vowing to never lose touch again.
Irene said: “I moved back six years ago as my family still live here. I loved the area growing up so wanted to settle down to enjoy retirement.
“I was aware Janet was still living in the area through chatting to friends about the good old days, but I hadn’t seen her and wasn’t sure if I’d even recognise her after all these years – and our last names have both changed since we got married.
“We were joined at the hip growing up as we were neighbours and also went to school together, we have many fond memories of sticking up for each other and playing in the park.
“When I sat down at the technology event I spotted Janet from across the room and thought that must be her. I turned to her and said ‘is that you Janet’ and she responded ‘yes Irene’ and we both laughed as she recognised me too.
“My heart really skipped a beat a little when we realised. I can’t believe my luck that it happened, I was delighted to see her again. We exchanged numbers and have planned to arrange to meet up as we have many years to catch up on.”
Janet added: “At Bield, you’re always doing different activities and bumping into people you haven’t seen in a while, but I couldn’t believe I got to reconnect with someone I knew so long ago. People often move away from the area, and you lose contact, it’s the way life goes.
“We both got married and now have different surnames. I hadn’t thought anything of it when someone told me Irene had moved back to the area as I didn’t recognise the name – so when I saw her at the event it was pretty surreal.
“We exchanged numbers so I’m really looking forward to meeting up in the future, we have many years to catch up on.”
Tracey Howatt, Director of Customer Experience at Bield, said: “We often have friends reuniting after not seeing each other for a long period of time, but I don’t think we have ever had anything like this before.
“It’s lovely for the two ladies to reunite and it just shows, you never know when you’ll bump into an old friend again.”
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