‘My partner was cheating. I wouldn’t have told anybody else’: people who found the right friend at the right time

From single mothers to fathers of autistic children and fellow adoptees – some relationships come along just when you need them the most “There was an automatic trust between us,” Mikayla says of meeting Lucy. “It was instinctive.” The women started teaching assistant jobs at the same school in 2011. Both had previously survived difficult relationships and Lucy had been rehoused with her four children. “We got on well without knowing much about each other,” says Mikayla, 52, who has five sons. “We were the older ones, and quickly found we had the same understanding of what was going on and the same work ethic.” When Mikayla discovered her partner at the time was cheating, “I remember going into school and telling Lucy. I wouldn’t have shared it with anybody else there. She told me, ‘It’s going to be all right, we’re going to sort this out.’ She’s always optimistic; I’m a pessimist.” Lucy remembers picking up the phone to Mikayla late at night for help, too, during an encounter with an ex. “I knew if I called her I’d be safe. I didn’t ask her to come, but she did.” Mikayla remembers it well: “I knew for her to pick up the phone was seri