Do Something!!

I read, with much sadness, the blog of a friend of mine about someone she was once very close to who had died.

It's such a busy world that we live in, and we're constantly jamming up our schedules with stuff that either we or our kids need to do. It happens to all of us. So, with people in the back of my mind that I just wanted to touch base with, I sent out seven e-mails this morning. None said anything more, really, than that I was thinking of them. Sadly, two of them have faced the loss of a family member in the past two weeks.

One e-mail was sent back as "undeliverable." I seem to recall that happening before. Two years ago, a friend that I was VERY close to for many years, turned 40. There was a surprise party for her, and at the last minute I called to see if kids were invited, as nowhere on the invitation did it say one way or the other. Turns out, kids weren't invited, Greg was out of town, and there was an event going on in the community that had the babysitters I knew of already spoken for. I opted out of the party. Sent her an e-mail a few days later, and have not heard from her since. I've sent Christmas cards, but haven't gotten one in return. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I go back and forth between shrugging it off to her being busy (full-time job, two kids, house, husband) and saying "eh, it's o.k....ours must have been a 'seasonal' friendship and that season has passed" to saying "what a bitch! How hard would a reply be, or maybe a note that simply said 'bugger off.'"

I had lunch with my dear friend Debbie last week. She and I e-mail each other, but hadn't gotten together since last summer. She asked about Sue, and when I told her I hadn't heard from her in nearly two years, her teeth just about fell out of her mouth! But yet, I wasn't upset about it! I'm thinking about this more, and I think that deep down I was always more of a friend to her than she ever was to me. Oh sure, she was great company and we had a lot of fun and shared a ton of inside jokes, but I've always known that if the chips were down, Sue likely wouldn't be the one I'd call. Debbie for sure. And I know that for a fact through experience.

C'est la vie.

But my point (if I really have one) is that we all need to stop what we're doing, look around, pick up the phone, or dust off the keyboard and just let the ones we care about know that we're thinking of them. If the posts I sent today go unanswered, I have let it be. I have learned enough to know that one person alone can not make a friendship.