I’VE MET SOME amazing women in my life. Most of them are older than me; some are my age. I guess we get wiser as we experience life’s ups and downs.

So when a woman who is half my age turns out to be someone I admire and look up to, it’s kind of humbling.

I met Amber about 12 years ago. She was my son’s drill team leader in the Navy Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program at their high school. My son was friends with her brother, which led to their friendship. He talked about her all the time, like she was his buddy. I thought that was cute.

But, as happens sometimes when boys and girls are just friends, their friendship all of a sudden turned into a romantic relationship. They were both so young, and my son had a path outlined for himself that involved the Naval Academy and becoming a pilot. So I couldn’t really see them continuing a relationship after high school.

I mean, come on, how often do high school romances last past graduation? Especially when they have college plans that will take them miles away from each other?

I think Amber sensed my hesitation — she was pretty astute, even at 18. It’s not so much that I didn’t want to see them together; it’s more that I didn’t want either to alter their paths just to be together.

One day, when I wasn’t home, Amber stopped by my house to use the shower; it was closer to school than her parents’ home. I never locked my door and she knew she was welcome to use my house anytime.

You know how you have pictures on your refrigerator of your family and friends, held up by silly magnets that you got on vacation? I had a photo of Amber and my son and me on the fridge. It had my son in the middle and Amber and me on either side of him. Only someone had moved the magnets around and accidentally covered up her side of the picture.

There it was, right at eye level — a picture of the three of us, only with her covered up. I can imagine how that made her feel.

Unwanted.

So she got out a pair of scissors and cut herself right out of the picture and put it back on the refrigerator and left my house. When I got home, what I saw was the picture minus her, left for me to see. I didn’t know about the magnet covering her up, so I thought, what the heck?

My first real mistake came when I didn’t call Amber to talk to her about it. Instead I called my son. Boy did I get an earful. My son is a bit of a peacemaker; he has always been the kind of person who just wants everyone to get along. But he wasn’t in the mood to make peace with me that day. He was livid with me.

It came as a bit of a shock, and my second mistake was to take an offensive stance and fire some comments back about how they were too young to be in a serious relationship anyway and how I thought they should be concentrating on college and … well, you get the picture.

That was one of the times in my life that I wish I could have a do-over.

Here was this smart, beautiful young woman, in love with my son, facing the fact that they would soon be off to separate colleges, whole states away from each other, and she felt like his mother didn’t like her or approve of their relationship. Ouch.

But she handled the situation well — better than I did, in fact. She didn’t hesitate to come over to my house, with my son, and apologize for cutting up the picture. I thanked her and then said maybe she shouldn’t use my house again while I’m not there.

Really? Second do-over, please.

When my son left for the Academy, he and Amber decided to end their romantic relationship and go back to being just friends. I think they both wanted the other to know that if they needed or wanted to move on, they had the freedom to do so. Amber watched her boyfriend move to the other side of the country and wished him all the best.

Then she got on with her life. She was accepted to a college in Maine and when it came time for her to pack up and move, I wanted to offer my help. She had shown me such grace and kindness even when she must have felt very vulnerable.

As I was helping her pack up her little Honda for the trip across the country, I noticed she was stuffing everything into the back seat of the car. I asked her to open the trunk so we could pack things in there, but she said it was full already. And when I opened the trunk I saw that it was full.

Of books.

And I mean full. Not books in boxes — no, that trunk was completely full of all her favorite books. When I tried to get her to leave some behind, she looked at me on the verge of tears and said, “I can’t.”

I wanted to hold her tightly in that moment and tell her it was all going to be OK. She had been putting on a brave front, but I knew deep down she was frightened. She was leaving behind everyone she loved and driving 3,000 miles away to start her own life, by herself.

I left every single book in that trunk and helped her pack up the rest of the car. And then she was off.

It didn’t take her or my son very long to realize that they were not only best friends, but that they had something special. Something that doesn’t come along very often.

The day after my son graduated from the Academy, we all stood on a beautiful spot beside the Severn River as they exchanged their wedding vows. I was so proud and happy for both of them.

They had a vision of what their lives would look like together, and Amber has been his support person through all the training and moving and frustration that comes with the military life.

They have two beautiful young daughters now and his training is finally complete. But with that completion comes the reality that even though he will be back, he is leaving.

And for a very long time.

Amber is about to become a single parent. She is living away from her family, and her best friend in the whole world is about to leave her, again.

She is putting on a brave face, as she always does, but I know she is scared.

But this time I will be there to hug her; not only because she is my daughter-in-law and I love her, but because she is my friend.

She is a woman I admire and look up to.

Loretta Gavin is a writer and mother of two. She’s married to the author of “Online Dating Sucks … but it’s How I Fell in Love.” She’s also the subject of that book.