ABSTRACT
Much of what we have offered has centered on couples or partners whom we interviewed alone. While these interviews provide a key lens through which to view couple friendships, another way of understanding how couple relationships work is to interview couples together so they can bounce ideas and reactions off each other. The next chapter describes an interview with a couples group where seven couples discuss their friendships with each other as a group. This chapter focuses on two white couples who describe a deeply satisfying and nourishing couple friendship that they have maintained since the early 1970s. As we asked them to articulate the genesis of their friendship and how it works, we are reminded of a high-wire act that has been perfected over years of balancing and trusting. Each of the four partners builds on the others, helping each to soar higher while also offering a safety net when needed. Part vaudeville act, part therapy session, the interview contains moments of entertainment interspersed with discussions about loneliness, difficult patches in marriages, and struggles with children. These two couples have been there for each other, watched each other, learned from each other, and now want to grow old together.
