I’ve known this for ages…I never really had close friends growing up but I watched as those who were ‘close’ mostly drifted apart (a few exceptions) after HS, or college, or some job….i have my family, freeper correspondents, and workmates…
You live long enough you damn well will grow apart. You won’t phone them because they’re dead. Pretty soon someone will visit your grave and say “ damn I miss old Don or whatever “. Ain’t nobody walking out of here. Cherish your memories, keep them close, and treat people good. Maybe they will miss you.
How many people in your life can you truly trust? That tells you something about who your friends are.
Yep. Relationships that dissolve when you transfer work places make it clear pretty early in life. Shoot, my best friend in elementary school vanished when her parents moved away, and that was the end of it. I looked her up a few years later and she didn't even remember me. I was like... wow.
I’m definitely an “old guy” by now, but have been only a little successful at trying to stoke up older friendships. Some respond well, others don’t seem to respond much at all, even tho we are of similar ages. Of course many good friends are no longer around & I can’t help that. That is a big problem because some(many) have moved away, but so many are deceased by now.
At first, it is the solitude. Maybe the slow realization comes later, and maybe it doesn’t. Is it really the loneliest, the most fundamental or the most important or the most common aspect of a lonely old age?