There is magic in long distance friendships. They let you relate to other human beings in a way that goes beyond being physically together and is often more profound – Diana Cortes

In my previous outfit post, I told you about my friend Katelijne who emigrated to Australia with her parents and brother now nearly 29 years ago. That is when our long distance friendship started… and here you can read about our extraordinary friendship…

Make sure you read the full post as below my thoughts on our friendship, Katelijne also wrote  some words !

When we were 15 we were in the same class in high school. But after a few months, Katelijne made the announcement that she would be leaving the school and Belgium as her parents decided to move to the other side of the world.

Once she had moved to Australia, we started writing letters and our friendship continued ever since. I must say it even grew over the years !

Growing up, we let eachother in on all our secrets and adventures, but also our dull moments and the problems we had. Once I was married, I phoned Katelijne for the first time and it was so strange but yet so familiar to hear her voice ! We phoned eachother from time to time and kept on writing letters. We sent presents too at birthdays or Christmas.

In 1997, 10 years after moving, Katelijne came to Europe for several weeks. She travelled around Italy but when in Belgium she stayed at our place. We had so much fun together ! Having late night chats (and snacks… and drinks !), going on day trips and even going to London for a couple of days. Though it had been 10 years since we had seen eachother, it felt so good, so familiar… just like a good friendship should be !

A couple of years later, in 2002 and also in 2004, Katelijne visited us again. This time she was staying elsewhere since our guest rooms were taken up by our children. But we still did a lot of trips together, building some more memories.

Now I haven’t had the opportunity of visiting Katelijne in Australia yet. I would so much want to see her again. I’m not ruling out me visiting her one day ! It would be simply fantastic if she could show me her beautiful adopted country…(us two in a camper, cruising around Australia… we’d be laughing and having fun till the cows came home, I’m sure !).

Since Facebook (she was actually the reason why I opened up a Facebook account back in good old 2006, it wasn’t wide spread in Belgium then) we share heaps of stuff online. It may not be as charming than way back when I was counting the days until I got mail from Australia… (Ooooh… I remember the suspense of getting another letter, sometimes it was a thick envelope and then I would rip it open as quickly as possible because I knew she would’ve send me some photos !) Nowadays it’s much more instant to get in touch. We follow eachother every day, seeing pictures of each other’s families, travels and home. We still share the good times and the bad times. And although it has been 11 years since we last saw eachother, we’re still chatting so easily and about everything like she was living around the corner and I could see her everyday. I just know that when we meet each other again, there would not be an awkward moment or any long silence… No… we will just take up where we left off, embrace each other and become silly 15 year old schoolgirls again… this time with a bit of life experience…

I love you Katelijne !

Love, Kathleen

I let Katelijne read my text and this is what she added :

Distance and time may keep us apart, but our friendship will last a lifetime. Thank you for your friendship Kathleen, it means a great deal to me! I wish we lived closer (or were millionaires so we could fly over and see each other more regularly)….now about that skype account…when are you going to set that up???

(thank you Katelijne for giving permission to use these photos !)