Losing people

 

"I'm sorry I don't know any Jimmy Boudreau," my mother said to the voice on the telephone.

I don't know what my father answered, but she quickly remembered Jimmy Boudreau was her ex-husband and father of her two children. It was also someone she had thought about very, very little for many years. To her dying day, my mother swore that she wasn't playing a game.

I often think how it is we can be so close to someone, be it a spouse, but a friend, partner, co-worker, roommate. We share hopes, dreams, ideas, good stuff, bad stuff sometimes on a daily basis. Then it can disappear.

Sometimes it disappears in a huge blow up that may or may not make sense at the time or even now years or decades later. That can leave scars and sadness.

Sometimes tiny little hurts, intentional or unintentional cut away at the fabric of the friendship until there's nothing left.

Other times, that person can drift away as life happens without hurt or trauma.

No matter how it happens, it is a loss.