Hey Pandas, Share A Moment When You Realized Someone Was A Great Friend

When my mom died, I was completely devastated. She had been battling severe depression and her apartment was a complete hoarder disaster. I had to go clear it out and didn't even know where t start. My best friend came over and completely took charge, delegated tasks to each person there, and we got it completely done in 2 days. I honestly don't know how I could ever repay her for that. She was on her vacation time from work as well.

Every good mate of mine has their own origin story and too many to list here, but one thing they all have in common was at various points in my life when i've needed someone to have my back, they've stepped up when they didn't have to but when it was very welcome support. They're the ones I run to help when they need it too - you can't buy loyalty, but you can reward it with loyalty back. I'm very lucky in the friends I have around me, whether it's been something serious like when i had cancer, something so utterly horrific when i lost my daughter, or during lockdown when due to my health conditions I had to shut myself away on my own for 18months - there'd often be shopping, a bottle of something nice, or some such on my doorstep followed up witih a phone call asking if there's anything else I needed. I love those guys to absolute bits, they take the sharpest edges off the shittiest bits that life throws our way and are a joy to share the good times with.

this was 40 yrs ago. i needed to get out of a very abusive marriage. i had decided to take refuge at a shelter for battered women that was about 60miles away. my friend knew how volatile my ex was and that the timing had to be perfect for me to get out of the house with my 18 month old son. we planned and when the day came we were like ninjas at lightspeed, loading up the car with all that i needed for my son as i only took a couple of changes of undies for myself. i knew that my ex would contact and question her when he realized i had left. she was so brave and such a good friend. it has been many years and thankfully via facebook i have been able to keep in touch with her. i will never ever forget her.

I met my best friend in kindergarten and he watched me grow up, have crushes, get abused by my parents, get kicked out of my House, get on and off drugs, jump from guy to guy and go no contact with the world for two years. After two years of silence, I got therapy and went to school to get a good job. Full of shame, I knocked on this guy's door and when he answered, he greeted me like he's seen me everyday, handed me a water and invited me in. He didn't mention me disappearing or anything bad I've done. He handed me a PlayStation controller and we went back to normal if not better.

On my friends birthday she wanted to go for afternoon tea with about 10 of her friends. For anyone who doesn’t know, afternoon tea is sandwiches, cakes, champagne and tea, it’s fairly expensive and is a bit of a classy treat. I’m the only one that is vegan. I tell my friend that if she lets me know once she’s booked somewhere and I’ll ring them up to let them know I’m happy with anything that’s vegan. My friend tells me that I don’t need to do this because she will check before she books that they can provide me with a vegan alternative and if they can’t then we’re not going there.
When I go out with my own family they don’t even bother checking options for me and yet a work friend that I’d only known a couple of years was willing to forgo the place she wanted to go for her birthday if they couldn’t provide me with a similar meal. This was the first of many times that she advocated for me and I think this speaks to the strength of her character. She’s an awesome person

When I came to my current school, people weren’t the nicest to me, and I didn’t know anybody. I had just gotten out of a tough 5th grade where I was pretty much made an outcast and laughingstock. We were still on WebEx, so I would say hello to everyone every day, hoping for a friend. One girl would say hi back, we eventually met in person, and we’ve been friends for about a year now.

I had just come back from an incredibly tiring day, and my friend, lets call her Annie, ran to me and gave me a huge hug. my old bestie never did that, and I realized Annie was a true friend

When my friends left me alone when I was having a hard day. They know I don't like to interact when upset because I snap easily so yeah. It was nice, I just sat near them and they let me do my thing

When I was singing for a talent show when I was, like, eleven and totally messed up, forgetting the lyrics, and unlike the rest of the school, who were laughing at me and making fun, she jumped onstage and started singing along. We are BFFs to this day.

when he offered to skip all his classes to make sure i was okay. ofc i turned him down so he'd go to class but it was an incredibly sweet gesture.

The person found me sobbing in a bathroom and sat with me, during a formal occasion to which she had a date, until I felt better.

When I was in middle school I was bulled relentlessly. Enter a new kid aka my new bestie! Has been my bestie for 15 years now! We are LGBTQ+ buddies and they helped me come out as non-binary and omnisexual to my parents, which means the world to me. Most importantly, they helped me through my depression and and I help them through theirs. I treasure them more that my families tbh which sounds horrible. But they have been there for me and protected me when my parents refused to.

At a wedding, everyone was couples dancing, except me and one of my friends also in attendance. She asked me if I wanted to dance with her. For reference, she hates dancing.

I have a really great friend. Let's call her Malea. She was in the same period during P.E. and I have very low self-esteem and tend to doubt myself. It gets to the point where I doubt I can hit a ball correctly. Every single time I doubt and belittle myself she always comes up to me and is like 'It's okay. You can do this. You are amazing." Every. Single. Time. One time there were people talking to me, asking if I was okay and I was panicking. It was really overwhelming. She sat me down and told me to take deep breaths. She waited until I was ready and then we went back to playing ping pong. Not only is she a great friend to me but she is a great friend to others. She is AMAZING.

Summer of 2016 I had moved to a new state and I was going into the third grade and knew no one. I don't make friends easily so I just kinda wandered around and made little fairy houses with the wood chips when it was break time. I had a couple kids come up and ask if I wanted to play with them and I agreed. When I went to play with them the next day however, they told me I couldn't play because I wasn't awesome at the game (4 corners), so I went back to my fairy houses. A couple weeks later a new girl arrived. She was shy, quiet, and looked like she had been crying for hours. So at recess, I took my chances and asked if she wanted to make fairy houses with me instead of sitting alone on a bench. She nodded her head yes and we sat in the corner of the playground having a one-sided conversation. Through out the weeks we became closer and closer and she and the shy, scared girl I originally knew was becoming loud, funny, fearless, brave, and was overflowing with a completely new personality! I found out we had a lot in common and that she really liked crafting. My grandma has a HUGE craft room so we set up a play date and we crafted all day long and ended up having a sleepover. We are still friends to this day and basically live at each other's houses. We call ourselves: The Sisters From Different Misters! We are both now in the 8th grade and soon to be freshmen's. We've stuck through thick and thin, good and bad, rain or shine, and so much more, and have had A LOT of fights. But, we always stuck right and have made through everything thing together and always will.

I was absolutely being DESTROYED in a Sonic & Mario Olympics tag team with my two best friends. When we did the surfing event, me and my friend (let's call Gary) demolished me, and it was my other friend's (let's call Larry) turn. He is usually the BEST at surfing. Keep in mind that he was in the lead in the tourney at the time. Instead of being awesome at the event, he totally sucked. I turned out to be second, I looked at Larry in disbelief and he looked back and winked at me. I didn't do any better in the rest of the tourney, but that one act of pure kindness reminded me what a truly AMAZING friend Larry is. (Gary's a good friend too, he's just VERY competitive.)

When my grandpa passed away. She flew back from her backpacking year in Australia to the UK to be at the funeral with me, stayed home for a month until I told her to go back and carry on with her trip.

When she helped me breath through my first panic attack, and when she helped me up both physically and mentally. I hurt my foot three weeks before a show that we were both in, and she was the one who both helped me figure out how to work with my crutches, and told me to go sit down when she saw I was getting tired. I love her to bits :)

When i was having a bad day, he didn’t try to talk me out of being sad. He just said “everybody has bad days, just get them over with now so you don’t have to deal with them later” i love him.

I'm lucky to have a few friends who've gone above and beyond over the years. I'll just pick one couple, Helen and Steve, who'm I've known for 34 years. He can be short-tempered and impatient (except with animals) but adores his wife, family and friends. She is patient and warm.
In 2019, my Mum could no longer cope living alone - deaf, nearly blind, and with dementia. My brothers and I finally settled that Mum would move to my town and I'd move in with her. I wanted to buy a house with cash and move myself and Mum in, then sell the old house. Mum's savings were about £95k, and I could add £10k as a loan, since it would be paid back when we sold the old house, which was worth £250k. Searching for the right place, with the cash we had, was tricky. Steve and Helen then offered to loan me £10k of their own money to put towards the new house.
I found somewhere, and when it came to my move, various friends pitched in to help me pack and move. I have MS and suffer from fatigue, so can't do much physical stuff. A month after I moved in, I was ready for my brother G to drive Mum up to my town - a drive of 4-5 hours with breaks. He made excuses that he was too busy this month, and wanted to put it off for 5-6 weeks. Mum was falling regularly, and needed to move ASAP. So Steve stepped up and offered to drive.
He came to Mum's house and stayed overnight in a hotel I'd booked. He helped organise stuff for the furniture removal and then drove me and Mum back to my town. Helen and other friends were at the new house to welcome the removal men and supervise the furniture unloading, as the van would arrive before we did. Mum arrived safely and settled in her new home. This was Feb 2020. If we'd waited for my brother to get around to it, lockdown would have happened, and our vulnerable mother would have probably been in hospital before long, either with covid of from another fall. She turned 90 back in Feb.