Dear LPG, 

Today I want to talk about something that is not that pleasant to discuss.

There is no good time to lose anyone you know, but as we get older it is something we all have to learn a little bit more about.  News of family members and friends who die becomes more frequent although it does not make accepting such news any easier to deal with.  

It is very unlikely that anyone who reads LPG pages does not know what I am talking about, and the past two years has forced more young people than ever to experience the feeling of bereavement a lot more often.

Just before last Christmas I visited someone that I would have called a casual friend until I learned that he had had a fall and was in hospital.  I didn’t class him as one of my closest friends but, since I heard the news of his passing, I have realised just how important his friendship really was to me.

It is still pretty recent, and I still find myself talking about him as if he is still with us, and I know that many readers will understand perfectly what I have written.  He was good fun to be around, and I counted myself as one of his acquaintances and sadly, it is now that he is gone that I realise just how much more important his friendship was to me than that.

Not everyone does but I do believe that there is more to life when we leave planet Earth, and I know that I am not writing anything new here, but I have written this because the experience has reminded me that we all need to cherish all our friends while we can, even those who we don’t see ourselves as especially close to, and we need to make the time before we lose the opportunity to do so. 

GF, Forest Hill