A Flood Reminded Me of the Essence of Friendship

Ansley Dauenhauer
1 day ago
2 min read

A Quote, a Question, and a Quirk

Ansley Dauenhauer theloftyquill.com July 6, 2026

A Borrowed Voice

The most beautiful discovery two friends can make is that

they can grow separately without growing apart.

Elizabeth Foley

A Curious Inquiry

What has been the impact of friendship on your life?

To prime your pump:

Did you have a best friend growing up? How did you meet? Are you still in touch?

Do you find social media to be beneficial for nurturing your friendships?

What do you like to do with your friends? Does it differ by people or groups?

A Small Moment

Six years ago, in May of 2020, a series of dams were breached, and parts of Midland, Michigan, where my family and I live, suffered a catastrophic flood. Our house sits high in our neighborhood, so our basement only got about eighteen inches of water. But the street just behind us is lower and was absolutely awash. Numerous houses there were condemned— water not only filled their basements, floating trees through their windows in some cases, but it rose high on the first floor in nearly all the homes.

Between the pandemic and the flood, the spring of 2020 was not a fun one. Of course, I remember the uncertainty of the evacuation, the sleepless nights, and the horror of the devastation. But equally vividly, I remember the community coming together. As soon as the evacuation order went out, numerous friends offered to host not only the four of us but also our two cats. People fed us and supplied alcoholic sustenance for weeks, did our smelly laundry— sometimes with pickup and delivery service— until the electricity was restored and we got new appliances, came to help with restoration work, and sent enough encouraging texts, emails, and voicemails to fill our phones.

The BBC wound up doing a piece on the flood and the unprecedented dam breaches that apparently went out world-wide. Many years ago, we lived in London, and so we have international friends we've seen occasionally over the years. To our shock, we heard from all of them! (Our kids decided that the reason the BBC picked up little Midland’s news was because everyone was sick of reading about the pandemic!) I can’t fully express how impactful hearing people from all eras of our lives was. It reminded me that friendship is truly a precious gift. It also reminded me that friends definitely don’t have to see each other all the time to maintain deep, abiding friendships. And that’s a real gift too.