Dear Kate,
   
I was wondering where to start, and the question I asked myself was: where would I be without you? You have given me the confidence to do all the things I dreamed of doing, but I had been too afraid to do them alone. Your companionship has had such a positive impact on the way I view the world and the way I view myself. You have always told me not to settle for second best. With you by my side, anything is possible.
   
I didn’t go to university or have an office job, so I never had that friend – the one you call to laugh or cry with. In my thirties, I found her in you, and we have laughed and cried as much as you would in a lifetime of friendship. We started Well Curated together to put a feel-good publication on the shelves. It is a project that has given me an enormous amount of purpose, and without your shared passion, the challenges of a new business would be far more challenging and the rewards far less rewarding.
   
You soak up information, like a sponge, and when you relay what you’ve been researching to me, I feel like I’ve been on the best crash course money could buy. Your knowledge of such a huge array of subjects means you can hold yourself in any conversation. I watch on in awe when you are discussing genetic epidemiology with a professor and think to myself: how on earth do you know that? And thank god you’re here!
   
Your love for learning is only rivalled by your love for your family. You welcomed me into yours and your home feels like my home. Your boys treat me like a big sister, and I feel so lucky to have that. They are as generous with their love as you are with yours: that is a testament to you.
   
Together, we have reached that stage in a friendship when you know if the other person needs space or a big glass of wine. I am proud of everything we have achieved professionally, and on a personal level, you have made me feel proud of the steps I have taken. I can be hard on myself, but you listen and reason with me as though it were the only thing you had on that day. How you do that when you have two children, Well Curated and a career in fashion photography is a selfless act of pure kindness. I will never feel alone now that I’ve found you.

Love,
Camilla

Dear Camilla,
   
I know it feels cliché, but do you know that feeling? You meet someone and you just click; you feel like you have known them forever; I had that with you. It was like meeting my long-lost sister – a relationship that changes and evolves but whose existence remains fixed, intrinsically entwined into the story of my life.
   
Together, we have experienced falling in love, falling out of love, marriage, babies, betrayals, cancer and grief. Starting a business, sweaty workout videos, climbing mountains, eating copious amounts of kale, fighting bears, dancing all night… and kittens!
   
Through the twists and turns of these highs and lows, it is your unwavering willingness to always be there. You are so brave and face adversity with the perfect amount of vulnerability and grit. You are loyal and passionately dedicated to loving your friends and family fiercely. You are introspective and wide-open, smart, emotional and brimming with empathy – so much so that you always get off a plane knowing the life story of whoever was sitting next to you. It’s not often that you find someone who fits so snugly in every corner of your life, helps you bear the weight of life and lightens the load.
   
I often think life is like a play, and the cast is like the many different roles the people in one’s life play. For me, you are like the narrator, gently guiding and wisely casting an overarching eye over every aspect of my life. Subtly directing me when I veer off course, listening when I just can’t get my lines right, kindly prompting me when I slip up and always patiently listening when I go over and over the same old boring monologue until I have worked out how to deliver with perfect enunciation.
You are always the first person on stage, with a big hug, championing my successes or commiserating my disappointments.
   
You are my multifaceted, dazzling, brilliant friend.
   
Love,
Kate

“Well Curated” is a biannual print publication that puts a positive spin on the way we live and shop. Issue 5 is due out in April.