It's a very unusual person to have been able to maintain a friendship that started in childhood.

I was in such a relationship (for 46 years). ever since we were 13 and freshmen in High School.

Just imagine going through double dating, boyfriends, sleepovers, parents becoming friends also, being each others maid and matron of honors, baptiizing each other's children, babysitting, house parties, block parties, holidays, graduations, WELL YOU GET THE DRIFT.

46 years of a friendship. OR WHAT I THOUGHT WAS A FRIENDSHIP.

It all went away in a poof. Don't want to post the whole story, but, to me, when a person gives their word, that person should keep their word.

And if they can't keep their word, for WHATEVER REASON, then that person should do all that they can do to make it right.

Plain and Simple Logic.

She did not do that. She just "disappeared" from my life. As did her whole family.

In one day, I lost over 50 people. People I shared block parties with, graduation events, communion parties, LOTS of family get togethers.All holidays.

Do you have any idea what it is like to be Auntie Mel to a group of people and then in a flash, you don't exist.

I do, because that is exactly what happened to me.

I found out that, in actuality, I never really mattered. That Alan and I were just an extension of their mom's friendship since she was 13. That we were good enough to bring goodies, give them my son's furniture, arrange to speak to medicare reps for them, DO STUFF FOR THEM, because they were raised to be entitltled.

But when you actually realize that the person you considered practically a sister, and the family you really thought of as family, well, that THEY REALLY DIDN'T see you in the same light..., well, let me tell you, talk about trust issues going on.

I really don't think I could ever put my heart and soul into a long lasting friendship again. Oh I have friends, and I can be depended on, but I have learned not to have too high of an expectation because people will disappoint you. It's just human nature.

If you had asked me years ago, if I had ever thought that this friendship would be irrevocably broken, I would have laughed in your face and said: 'are you out of your mind?" Because that's how solid it was for 46 years.

But people change, and most especially, loyalties change.

I always expected that one of my friend's adult children would show up on my doorstep and say "Auntie Mel", we are so distressed to learn of this whole nonsense, what can we do to make it better...because after all, you are Auntie Mel, you have always been Auntie Mel, and we always want you to be Auntie mel".

I really thought this would happen, or, just in case this didn't happen, I really thought she would show up with a box of pastries, knock on my door, and go "This is stupid, I made a mistake, let me make it up to you".

Believe me she was given opportunities, and mutual friends tried to intercede. She would have none of it. She chose to hang her head and not address what she did.

How a person can destroy a 46 year friendship, well, it's beyond me.

But I have had this happen.

So I lost the whole family, all the block parties, all her sisters and brothers, her sons and daughters, EVERYBODY that I knew for those 46 years, just went bye bye, because no one had the guts, or the courtesy to pick up a phone and try and intervene.

It's over 2 years now. It's too late. Sometimes it really is too late to go home. I've heard of that.

So when I read these posts about fare weather friends, and people flitting from friendship to friendship, well, my mind goes back to a friend WHO I ALWAYS THOUGHT WAS A FRIEND, but turned out TO HAVE NOT BEEN A FRIEND. And the family too. All the weddings we attended, all the gifts we gave. They actually have my sons bedroom.

Sometimes it's hard to fathom how one person can betray another person.

Guess it happens every day.

I just read this in the paper today. We can't go back and change the past, but we can do all we can to make A BETTER PRESENT.

That's about the best we can do, right??