How could one criticize a story that is close to your heart? If you were putting this out for popular consumption, for sale, it would be different, but this is for you and as such there is not a blessed thing wrong with it.
Having lost close friends myself, I can understand where the story comes from.
Thank you for that...It was still sitting on my hard drive as, although it's been on-line before, I could never bring myself to sell it to my publisher.
-Toonces