The friends actively created their friendships. The result is that they came to define their relationships with each other as friendships. One of the friendships was intense and intimate, while in the others, the friends assumed a more casual relationships with one another. One friendship was focused on a particular interest and was limited to certain activities, while the other friendship existed regardless of what activities the two friends were involved in while together. Some of the friends had frequent, perhaps daily, contact, while others saw each other far less often.
Friendships are meaningful Each friendship was meaningful for the informants.
These meanings were similar across all four friendships. For the informants, their friendships were mutual relationships which involved certain rights and responsibilities on the part of each of the friends. They acknowledged that their friendship were voluntary and their obligations chosen. While in each group, both of the friends contributed something to the relationships, these contributions differed according to whether the friend had a disability. Once a friendship bond was established, it was most often the person with the disability who made the phone calls, suggested possible activities and events and were most likely to remember holidays, anniversaries an so forth.