Today I will say good-bye to a very dear friend.
We met in grade school and our friendship grew all through high school. She moved away when she married a military man. We didn’t keep in touch on a regular basis, except for birthday and Christmas cards and an occasional random note. But I still felt close to her. We made a lot of lasting memories during those early years of our lives. Memories I will forever cherish. I think I still have those notes she passed to me in the hallway while changing classes.
Last year she got in touch with me via email. I am so glad she did! We were able to catch up, share pictures of our families and just chat. We even had plans to get together for lunch. After all, we only lived about an hours drive from each other.
Early this year, she was diagnosed with cancer. They were able to remove the tumors on her brain and she was responding well. And then suddenly the emails stopped. She was the type of person who would forward those cute, feel good messages that always tells you to forward them on to 10 other people, including the person who sent it to you. Those annoying forwards that clog up our inboxes. What I wouldn’t give to have one more from her. She stopped checking in on Facebook. I emailed her a few times to see how things were going; how treatment was going but I didn’t hear back. I should have know then that things weren’t good.
I will always regret that I didn’t call her sister to get an update on her progress, or even call her sister to get her phone number. If I had of, if I just would have made time to call, then perhaps I could have seen her one more time, face to face. It serves as a reminder that life is short and I want to leave this world with the least amount of regrets as possible.
Good-bye, my friend. I love you.
This was beautiful. I have a friendship that sounds a lot like yours. We met at 14, were best friends through high school but went our seperate ways and lost touch after graduation. 5 years later we both realized (through social media) that we had moved to the same small city 4 hours away from where we grew up. We had been 20 minutes away from each other for years and didn’t know it.
Now, we live a street away from each other. Our kids play together daily. She was in the delivery room for the birth of my son. It is amazing how people come in and out of our lives exactly when we need them to.
Try not to focus on the regrets, but instead on the amazing things that she taught you. What a blessing to have had her in your life twice.
It’s unfortunate that someone tragic reminds us that life is so short. Just recently, my friend came in town (she’s away for school) to visit family and friends. The day she was coming into town, her mother got in a freak motorcycle accident and died on the scene.
I was going to her mother’s house that next day to swim and hang out. And then it just hit everyone like a rock.
Even though I didn’t know her mother that well, she’s one of my best friends and it felt like a part of my family died. It’s crazy how life can be taken away in a second, but they’re all in a better place.
Aww…so sad about your friend’s mother. Weird how that affects us even when we’re not close. Amen to the better place.