Jackie Jones

Jackie Jones, 40, a part-time medical secretary from Essex, England, met up with her old school friend, Heather Gooch, three years ago, after finding her through the Friends Reunited website. They were close friends. Here is Jackie’s story about how they met again:

Heather and I have known each other since we were five, but lost touch when Heather left school at 16, to work as a waitress, and I stayed on to do A-levels. We’d been such good friends at school, I was curious to see what she was doing and hopeful that we would renew our friendship. So, when I saw something in the paper about the website, Friends Reunited, I logged on straight away. It was very easy to use. You create your own password, and then look up your school and the year you left and up comes a list of names.

I was very excited when I found Heather’s name in the list. We e-mailed each other at first, then spoke on the phone and decided to meet up. It was 23 years since we’d last seen each other, but there was no awkwardness. We took up exactly where we’d left off. It was incredible at that time. It was as if we’d never been apart. We still have lots in common-we laugh at the same things, like the same music and our lives seem: have taken a similar path. She’s my best friend again.

We e-mail each other every day and see each other at least once a week – we go to restaurants, the cinema, and go shopping together. Heather’s family spent Christmas Day with us last year because our husbands and daughters get on well, too. It’s great. It’s a deeper kind of friendship than the one we had at school, which I think comes with age and experience. I feel I could turn to her for support and hope she would do likewise.

We’ve met up with a few other friends through the website and last year we organised a reunion. Nearly 40 people came, which was lovely.

When you have children, there is not always time to keep in touch with all your old friends. I’d made new friends through their primary school, but it’s lovely to have renewed a friendship from a different part of my life, and when we’re together, we feel like we’re going to keep in touch forever.