Real Friendships. Will Yours Last 'Til Death?

This episode of The Offshoot is 10 years in the making. It began a few years after the passing of my grandmother Irene Moody Nelson, at a time when I was beginning to question friendships - particularly friendships as relationships.  My grandmother had the best friends, and there were many friendships she cultivated.  To better my friendships, to work on them as friendship, I wanted to know what made her relationship with her friends so great. How were they able to be and remain such good friends until their deaths. 

I sit down and talk with three of my grandmother's friends: Ms. Mattie Roberts, Ms. Ellamenna Bullock, and Ms. Flossie Ford.  You may wonder why I use Ms. versus Mrs. Well, that's because I never knew their husbands. I never knew my grandmother's husband, James Nelson, who died in a tragic farming accident at age 50 (possibly age 48).  Like my grandmother, these particular three friends of hers, and there were others, were without husbands.  All had lost their husbands prior to my birth, expect Ms. Flossie, who left her husband.  Growing up, everyone referred to these women as Ms. 

Ms. Mattie, Ms. Ellamenna and Ms. Flossie, which is how I grew up calling and referring to them, all spoke, as best they could, about friendship - their friendship with my grandmother.  At the time, Ms. Ellamenna was the oldest at 100 and Ms. Flossie was the youngest at age 91. Again, that was 10 years ago. All have past except, Ms. Flossie, whom I still go see whenever I'm in South Carolina. To see these beautiful, loving women on film and to hear them makes one want to have friendships that last 'til death.

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