My friend Sally and I were gabbing about Secret Garden the other day and had an interesting discussion. It's made quite clear at the beginning of the show that Mary is in need of a good friend. So I was posing that Martha was the first kind person that Mary meets and therefore Martha was Mary's first friend. But Sally was saying that in terms of a 'real' connection, Mary had that later in the show with people like Ben or Dickon. So who do you all think was Mary's first 'real' friend?

I would agree that Martha was the first kind person Mary meets, but I don't know if I'd call their relationship a friendship. While the age thing doesn't really matter, considering Mary considers Ben a friend and he's much older, the difference in the two girls' ages does affect the way Martha responds to Mary. This makes me think it's more of a sisterly (or perhaps cousinly) type of relationship. Whether Mary wants to admit it or not, I think the farther the show goes on the more she looks up to Martha. Putting it in modern terms, I can't see Mary and Martha texting each other or constantly hanging out with each other the way friends do, but I can see Martha taking Mary out for ice cream or to the mall the way I do my younger cousins.

While Mary herself says that the robin is her first real friend, if you're meaning human friend, I'd go with Dickon. There's still a bit of an age gap (10 to 16, I think?) but the two respond to each other as friends. Both of the Sowerby's may feel sorry for Mary, but Martha appears to try to give her the love and affection she's never had while Dickon seems to want to have fun and see her happy because she's enjoying herself.