The Current 16:53 How these 76 and 105 year-old women became "soul friends"

When writer Merilyn Simonds turned 70, she realized she didn't have a roadmap for the years that lay ahead — but that her 100-year-old friend Beth Robinson might have some advice.

"My mother died at 75. My husband's father died at 75 … a lot of our friends had been ill, some had died recently. And I just thought, 'I don't know what the 70s are like,'" she told .

"And there was Beth, who was 100, and I thought, 'Well, she must know.'"

Simonds and Robinson both live in Kingston, Ont., and have been friends for so long that they don't remember when they met. When Simonds asked if they could get together, Robinson suggested they go for a walk.

This was five years ago, deep in the COVID-19 pandemic, and Robinso

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