A curious thing happened to Jennifer and I recently, we were defriended on Facebook. Facebook does not let you know when someone has stopped being your friend. You have to figure it out for yourself. For some reason, Jen decided to check her list of friends and this person, Z, was no longer on the list. So, Jen checked my list of friends, and Z had vanished from my list as well. A month ago we had found it odd that we did not receive a Christmas card from Z. We know now that omission was on purpose and not an oversight. Now for a little history. We met Z and her husband at our church approximately 6 years ago. They joined our Sunday school class. Then their family suffered a horrible tragedy. Our class stepped up and helped them through the tough time. During that time, our relationship with them strengthened. Shortly thereafter, I was injured at work. Due to my injury, I could not work and went to physical therapy for 9 months. This left Jen and I with our nights and weekends free. We took advantage of that. During that 9 months, we spent a great deal of time with Z and her husband. We probably saw them an average of 3 or 4 times a week. We spent weekends together and vacationed together. The four of us became very close friends. I guess we had nowhere to go but down at that point. Eventually, I fully recovered from my injury and returned to work. That meant that I no longer had nights and weekends free to socialize. We still spent time together, but not as much time. Awhile later they stopped attending our Sunday school class. Their decision disappointed us, but we supported what was best for their family. We still got together on weekends and enjoyed their company. Eventually, we started seeing less and less of them. Instead of once a week, it became once every two weeks or once a month. This became once every three months. Our time together became catching up with what had been happening in each other's lives. Every time we got together it felt like a mini-reunion. The friendship was deteriorating. This did not mean that we were no longer friends, we were just not as close as we once were. Apparently we are now to the point where we are no longer friends. On the one hand, my pride tells me to forget about them. I have some great friends that I enjoy spending time with and the relationship is reciprocal. Since Z took the step to defriend us, why worry about it? However, on the other hand, we were close friends for some time. What happened? How did we get to here? I want to reach out and try to begin the process of mending fences. If they do not want that, I at least want to know what happened. Jen and I have no idea. My hope is to salvage the friendship. I am not sure this is possible, but I am at least going to find out.
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