I too lost a very good friend on Christmas Day. I was called by the police who discovered her body in a hotel room where she stayed. There was no identification, no purse, or anything, other than a piece of paper with my name and phone number on it.
We had been friends for years, and about two years ago, she decided to live as a recluse. She refused contact with me, or anybody else, including her family who live in another town. Everybody figured that she would just come around.
I had to call her brother and break the news over the phone as they had to have next of kin identify the body. He decided that she would be cremated, and there would be no funeral service, only a private family gathering in the summer, when she would be interned at the family plot.
I can't tell you the regret I have at not contacting her. I could have sent a card, left a message, dropped off a letter. The guilt was eating me alive.
But, now that time has passed, I realize that nothing I could have done would have prevented her death. Nothing.
Something you may wish to consider doing that I have planned for my friend. I am gathering everybody that cared about her, to go out for dinner at her favourite restaurant. We are planning a wake of sorts, so that we can remember her, and talk about the good times, which were far more than the bad. Others were just as shocked as I was at her sudden passing, and everybody loves the idea of a final tribute, just from her friends.
I think my friend would have liked that.
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