On the other hand, with so many people so accessible, people can sort of drift away. There's no way you can keep all those people always in your life. So, in a way, there are more people, and theoretically, they should be closer, but they're not.
A friend of mine passed away in December of last year. I found out Friday. I've known Shauna for probably forty years. She married into a family I've known even longer, a family that I've been associated with still, a family that has played an important part of my life.
Around 1990 I heard that Shauna and her husband were moving out of the country for her husband's job. She wondered if I wanted to find a few roommates and rent out her home in the Sunnyside area of Salt Lake. It was a couple of blocks from the University of Utah. I loved living there. It became a place for my friends and fraternity brothers to hang out. It was where I was living when I met my wife. Shauna and her husband didn't have to rent out there house, but I'm glad they did.
Years later, with her living half a world away, she wanted to buy my books. That's the ultimate compliment of any writer to have someone request a book they've written. Shauna followed me on social media and commented on many of my photos and blog posts.
Shauna lived in Egypt when my wife and I got married. For a wedding gift, she gave us a personalized plaque. On the plaque is our name in English, Egyptian, and Arabic (at least, I think those are the languages...). We put it up in the two houses we've called home.
I found out she's been gone for months. Even though I haven't seen her in person for many many years, it still hit hard. I'll miss her comments, her quirky sense of humor, her funny stories. Like I said earlier, relationships continued via social media have a good side. I'm glad I kept in touch, even though it was infrequent. She'll be missed.
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