Marking birthdays of deceased and vanished friends

This is more of a brief personal note. I just sent a birthday text to a friend who seemed to vanish into the ether back in April this year. I will likely never know what happened. I doubt this person will ever read it, so this may be more just self-therapy for me. I do something similar with friends who have passed away, but whose email or social media accounts are still available. I know darned well that they will not see anything I write. It's more for me to simply reflect on some pleasant memory or memories I have and perhaps to express some gratitude for the person just having been in my life for however long that lasted. I think we all have ways of grieving, and this just happens to be mine. It's also a reminder that we all affect each other in ways we can never truly appreciate until one of us passes away or simply disappears from our lives. There are memories still to be cherished, after all. Somehow it helps to be reminded of those times and the friendship's value to me, and after writing something kind I tend to feel better. That's just my process, I guess.

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