Hi everyone,I'm Vgdawson, and I'm joining this community because I've been carrying something for a while that I'm finally learning to name grief for friendships that didn't end with a goodbye, they just faded.I'm 35 years into adulthood, and like many of you, I've loved and lost people along the way. But the losses that have stayed with me most aren't the ones with clear endings. They're the friendships that slowly quietly slipped away. The best friend of 30 years I no longer speak to. The women who once felt like home, now strangers I scroll past on social media.For a long time, I thought I wasn't "allowed" to grieve these losses because no one died. There was no funeral, no ritual, no sympathy cards; just an ache that lingered and questions left unanswered. What happened to us? Did I do something wrong? Was our friendship not as real as I thought?I'm here because I've learned that grief doesn't require a death certificate. It requires love. And when you love someone deeply, for years, for decades; losing them, even to the slow fade of life, deserves to be mourned.I actually wrote a book about this experience called My Best Friend: When Friendships Fade—Unspoken Goodbye, but more than anything, I'm here to connect with others who understand this quiet kind of loss. I want to learn from your stories, share what I've learned, and remind anyone reading this: you're not alone in missing someone who is still alive.
If you've navigated the end of a long-term friendship, I'd love to hear, how did you make sense of it? How did you find peace?Grateful to be here with all of you. Vgdawson
#Friendship #Grief #MentalHealth #newh