Friends From Four Decades Host a Podcast
Writer / Amy Adams
Photography Provided
Early last fall Suzi Lundergan, 64, attended an event at Urban Vines.
“I would go to these events and I was looking for other ‘gray hairs’ to be friends with,” says Lundergan, who moved to Westfield to be closer to her adult daughter.
She had no idea that within a few months she would develop an authentic friendship with three other women, none of whom she had met, and all of whom were born in different decades.
Faron Luce, 36, had joined the parent-teacher association and every committee she could, just to try to meet friends when her daughter started school.
Jenn Foster, 51, realized when her younger daughter left for college that a lot of her adult friendships had revolved around her kids’ activities.
“Now my kids are gone,” Foster had said to herself. “What do I do?”
“You make three amazing new friends,” says Kimmy Kercheval, 45.
And that’s precisely what happened.
Luce, Foster and Kercheval started hanging out at events planned through a Facebook group called Women Building Friendships in Westfield. Then Luce met Lundergan that night at Urban Vines, and recognized a kindred spirit despite the 30-year age gap. Friendship blossomed.
“We would go to the Wine Vault and by the end of the evening, everyone would have joined us in our conversations,” Luce says. “I thought, ‘Maybe other people want to hear what we have to say.’”
Thus the “4 Generations of Friends” podcast was born, with the first episode, titled “Making Adult Friendships Is Hard,” released on December 13, 2022.
Now with more than 20 episodes and a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts, “4 Generations of Friends” has nearly 1,200 listeners, about 30% of whom are men, with listeners as far away as Ireland and Thailand. The women don’t shy away from covering taboo topics like money, sex and religion.
“We talk about things in a very open and honest way,” Luce says. “That’s how our friendship was forged, so we just put it out there. We don’t hold back.”
“But we are all respectful of each other’s opinions,” Lundergan says.
While recording an episode in January, the women realized that, despite all having been married since their 20s, none of them ever had a bachelorette party. So in early April, they took a trip to Las Vegas to rectify that.
“We all wore veils and sashes and shirts that said ‘Bride,’ and people would stop us and say, ‘Congratulations!’” Luce says. “It was just so much fun.”
On June 23 they hosted a bachelorette party for women in the area. Starting at Jan’s Village Pizza, where Kercheval is the owner, they made local stops for drinks, games, prizes and swag. They have plans to offer a similar celebration in August or September.
“We’re not a closed circle,” Kercheval says. “We want to include everyone and hope they have as much fun as we do.”
Lundergan says they want to encourage other women to keep putting themselves out there until they find the friendship they truly desire.
“People need to find a tribe,” Foster says. “And if their tribe doesn’t build them up, they need to find a new tribe.”
You can listen to “4 Generations of Friends” on your favorite podcast app, and follow them on Facebook and Instagram. Reach out to 4generationsoffriends@gmail.com with topic ideas and feedback.
