In "A Christmas Memory" by Truman Capote, what does the reader know about Buddy? What is his relationship to the old woman he calls "my friend"?

In "A Christmas Memory"  Buddy and Miss Sooks are cousins.  She is in her sixties, and he is seven.  Buddy is actually Truman Capote when he was a child.  Buddy lived with several relatives due to his parent's divorce.  He has lived with Miss Sooks and other elderly relatives in the house for a long time.

Buddy and Miss Sooks are best friends.  They laugh together and sometimes they cry together.  Miss Sooks starts every Christmas season off by telling Buddy that it is fruitcake weather.  Together the two of them gather pecans and shell them.  They go out and cut a Christmas tree.  Miss Sooks and Buddy make and distribute the fruit cakes around the neighborhood.