“I guess by now I should know enough about loss to realize that you never really stop missing someone – you just learn to live around the huge gaping hole of their absence.”

― Alyson Noel, Evermore

One of the losses that hit me the most was when my grandma passed away five years ago. I talked to her everyday. Being the only grandchild that she got to know, we were close. So when she passed away, it was a big change for me. Suddenly I didn’t have someone to visit or talk to during the week. While I’d lost my other grandparents before her, I didn’t talk to them daily, so it wasn’t as big of a change.

I’ve lost friends over the years as well, but not to death. These friendships were ones that faded away over the years, mainly due to the fact that they were either school or work friends, so when we moved on from those places, we lost touch. Some I’m still in touch with, but only once in a while on Facebook. Others have gone completely. Sometimes their absence hurts, sometimes it doesn’t. The ones that hurt more are the ones that you know you truly felt were like family to you.

Unfortunately, I’ve had a couple of friends whose absence hurt more than others, and not because something happened to them – they just stopped talking to me. It’s weird going from seeing or talking to the person nearly everyday to having them suddenly ghost you. It’s worse than if you lose someone to death because they chose to do so.

Whether it’s a friendship lost or a loss of a loved one to death, the loss of the relationship hurts. And like the quote says, you never really stop missing them. You just learn to live with that person-sized hole.