from 'Innocence and Experiences'

Out hobbled Mr. Brewer from one door and old Elsie from the other. A pair of weathervanes announcing a change in temperature, they chatted philosophically about how we'd keep in touch and see each other soon, but of course, even though we were moving only 14 miles away, we never saw them again.

...

For many years we kept in touch: always a card at Christmas and birthdays; and in the early days Nanny would visit us with her own babies, first one and then a second. But slowly, painlessly, we drifted apart. We moved again; Nanny and Dave split up; I went away to school. The common ground was being washed away. Waves of new experiences effaced the old footprints, and soon Nanny and me were a dot on the horizons.