My Julie, my oldest and dearest friend

This is my Julie:

We have been friends since September 1998, when I joined Ballymena Academy. We’ve been pretty inseperable since then. We had some epic fallouts in our younger days but those are far behind us.

I love her. I love her like another sister. She is my closest and dearest friend and has always been there for me. We have had some wonderful times together: we were the first the other told when we got engaged, we were each other’s chief bridesmaids, when ‘Cruelty’ was launched, she flew across in secret to be there for it, we are the godmothers to each others’ children.

And we’ve been there when things were tough. I lost a baby in June 2014 and she sat up, into the small hours of the night, just letting me sob all my pain down the phone. When sadly, the same thing happened to her in the October, I did the same for her. She was the first person I told when I got pregnant with Isabella (after my mother) and I was the first person she told when she was pregnant with Bethannie. She loves me so much that she left her beautiful little girl at six weeks (and who was suffering with a terrible dairy intolerance) to attend Izzy’s baptism.

Julie is the kindest, sweetest, sassiest woman I know. She is an incredible friend, who will do anything for anyone and I am so blessed to have her in my life. I know I can always rely on her for whatever I need, and I hand on heart know I’d do the same for her.

Friendships like ours are rare. There are marriages that don’t last as long as our friendship. We can go months without speaking but pick it up as if we’d only said goodbye the day before. Whatever happens, I know that we always have each other.

I love you Julie.