Finding friendship through WAY: Lisa and Lorraine’s story

July 2024

WAY member Lisa talks about the friendship with fellow WAY member Lorraine that has helped her to embrace new adventures since she was widowed in her 40s…

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“Lorraine was the first person I met after joining WAY in January 2022. I first messaged her through the website as I saw she lived only a few minutes from me in Kent and we were both in our late 40s. 

We arranged a walk around our local park. I was nervous but I am so glad I went as we hit it off straightaway. After walking for an hour, the conversation flowed and our situations were so very similar. We both had been with our partners since our late teens and both have older teenagers of similar ages. So we are able to bounce all sorts of different situations and scenarios off of each other that we would have once done with our partners.

We carried on walking each week for an hour and, even now, we still do that same walk every Thursday morning before work followed by a flapjack in the coffee shop.

We have become such good friends and have shared so many tears and so much laughter together. We have encouraged each other in our journeys – when one is down, the other is there to offer words of encouragement of even just a different viewpoint.

Lorraine also encouraged me to become a local area contact for WAY and has helped me to set up events such as pub evenings, meals out and walks.

I have now moved home, which is just a few doors down from Lorraine and I feel comfort knowing she is there.

We have even taken up dancing salsa and bachata (a dance that originated in the Dominican Republic) together for two hours every Tuesday and Friday evening – a new hobby that we have both fallen in love with. It is so lovely to go together and share our new-found interest – we can be seen sometimes practising our steps around the park on our Thursday morning walks!

We have shown each other that there is a different way of living and we are embracing new adventures and making new memories.”