Moving on after the death of a friend

One thing I have learnt lately is that you’re never too old to lose friends in life. When we are young we often see life as an endless journey that shows us death on a very infrequent basis. Look back to your youth you will find that the only funerals that you attended were mainly family members of friends of the family.

In my thirties I hear my mother say all the time that her friends seem to be “dropping like flies” and we should be grateful for the time we have with our friends. She could not be more far from the truth. There is a difference but it’s that very difference that concerns me.

Whilst my parent’s generation and indeed my parent’s friends seem to die of natural causes or “old age” I am also losing the same, if not more friends, than they are. This year alone I’ve lost friends due to childbirth, suicide, car accidents, overdose and even manslaughter. I’ve long passed the stage of questioning why, one thing I have realised is that we are all taken for a reason at a certain time and when our time is up, it’s simply over.

I have learned the value of life and how it should be lived. Not in a reckless fashion as each day would be my last but more of a lasting legacy to the testament of those I have been lucky and fortunate to share happy times with along the way.

Losing friends in life is something that we are all going to have to deal with at some stage in our lives I just guess that for me it’s happening more now than ever before. Yes I will cry, yes I will feel anger and raw regret. But once the tears have dried and the pain has sunken away the lasting feeling I now have is one of remembrance.

They are gone and I am here. The best I can do is live life in their memories.

R.I.P. Scott and Jay. BBQ’s will never be the same without your beers, burgers and bickering