When we’re kids, friendships form naturally and without much effort. Your best friends are often the people you spend most of your time with: neighbors, classmates, your parents’ friends’ kids, etc. But as we grow up, we realize that having a friend for life is no walk in the park: friendship is like a flower you have to tend, water, and protect from pests.

In a 2021 CBS News poll, one in 10 Americans said they have known their best friend for 50 or more years, so those kinds of friendships do exist, albeit rarely. In many cases, though, our friendships end, and many different things can cause that rift.

In one recent online thread, a netizen asked people to share their stories, writing, “What happened to the friend you thought you'd have for the rest of your life?” Get ready for some heartbreaking stories involving ghosting, betrayal, and hardships that led to best friends growing apart.

#1

He went to a military academy and married a girl we'd both dated. Then nothing from him for 50 years, although she was a friend on FB. Last month we all reconnected and had a wonderful time catching up and recollecting good times.

We definitely need to do that every 50 years.

#2

He invited me to his wedding, then never called me/returned my calls again.

I didn't drink, at all, during his ceremony, nor did I make any comments at all, so it couldn't have been my behavior.

Edit: not that I should have to add this, but given the decision people have made to interpret my statement. My friend of over 20 years had a deeply alcoholic uncle who showed up to the wedding smashed, and embarrassed himself. I chose not to open any, out of respect for him.

#3

He got married, had a child, and gained different interests. As this happened, communication and visits became rare until I noticed I noticed that I was the only one visiting and or started communications. I decided to stop and see if it was just in my head. Well, I haven't seen or heard from him since. I hear he is doing well, and that makes me happy.

#4

He ghosted me. I’m British he lived in the states. Went to visit him twice. I guess for him I was just a pen pal. We were friends who spoke almost every day for 15 years.

#5

We were both the 'weird' kids in primary school when I moved into town at age 8. I didn't fit in with the general cohort, and neither did he - we became fast friends. A friendship that endured through highschool and early adulthood.
There was a point when we were both near 30 that I realised I never felt better after we saw each other. Often, much worse really. This made me reflect on the years we'd been 'friends', and I realised for the last 10 at least I had never actually felt good after seeing him, and our relationship was very heavily skewed towards his needs and issues.

I realised in all the years we had known each other, he had never asked how I was, how I felt, or how I was doing.

I realised, that is not a friendship.

So, I stopped calling him. I stopped visiting his house. And thus, the friendship ended. Because I was the only one being a friend.

#6

They had kids and I didn't. after that I think it was that our lives were too different to connect anymore. their lives revolved around their kids and I and my partner couldn't identify with that. my and my partner's life was about travel and career and they couldn't identify with that.

#7

We had been friends since middle school, we were a group of three best friends. When he got married in 2016, I was a groomsmen and our other friend was his best man. The wedding was the last time we heard from or spoke to him.

Nothing happened to cause it. He just.. disappeared. I heard he got divorced years ago and is living with family in Las Vegas now. I reached out to his mom on Facebook to see about getting in touch with him and she replied "He will not ever reach out. He has expressed that was the past and he no longer will visit it."

And that's how I lost one of my best friends.

#8

I went to america for 2 weeks and prior to that we were planning her hens party. When I came back she ghosted me and I still to this day have no idea what I did wrong I tried to reach out to and nada.

#9

We were inseparable during jr high and then his father got a new job in Arizona, many states away. One day we were hanging out and maybe two months later he was gone. That was the end of 9th grade, and the summer after that I entered high school, without my best friend. I never saw him again, and that was 30 years ago.

Doesn't help that his name is as anonymous as "John Smith," so searching for him on social media goes nowhere. Of course, he hasn't, apparently, taken any effort to find *me* on social media, but maybe there's reasons for that. Just hurts being in the dark about this person I really clicked with.

#10

My disability got worse and I now need a wheelchair to get around outside the house. They started ghosting me and after pushing them for an answer me thinking something happened etc they tell me "well, we've nothing in common anymore since you cant go out to shows and such." I was heartbroken. This was my person that I thought was my ally, I had supported them through so much but I was just dropped like I was nothing. I foolishly tried keeping the friendship going for a few more months but they kept cancelling on me or outright lying about their plans. In the end I just blocked them everywhere, they didn't deserve a conversation. It still hurts so badly.

#11

I failed him as a friend. I went through some of the worst bouts of depression and avoidance that I've ever experienced. He kept offering to hang out or play games, and I kept pushing him away until eventually he just gave up and left. I'm doing a lot better these days, but I really miss him and wonder if I should reach out and try to rekindle our relationship. At the same time though, I know that it's been far too long since we last spoke, and I don't know if he would trust me after everything.

I don't blame him, of course.

#12

Threw me under the bus for decades without me knowing it to make himself look better among our close friends & old high school group and started blaming me for his life problems. I just stopped reaching out and giving myself space to figure out everything.

#13

Best friend from college and we went on multiple trips to see each other and different locations (we don’t live in the same area). The kind of friendship that might go 2 months without a text and then suddenly you’re texting all day catching up. We tried to plan at least one long trip a year to really hang out but we’re content with texts and calls in between.

They just decided to never answer me again despite a few attempts over a month or two and I reached out to their boyfriend (who I was also friends with) just saying I know she might be busy but I was worried about the lack of response and if they were too busy to chat, I understand.

The reason I was concerned was one of our last chats was about their mental health and how they weren’t doing well.

Apparently that’s psycho behavior and I am to never contact them again. 15 years of friendship just down the drain.

#14

She decided to date my toxic brother knowing how he treated me for years… “but he’s nice to me” I’m still blown away by that comment.

I went no contact with both of them, they lasted barely a year. Last I heard she had to collect her things from his house while he was at work, and brought her dad for backup.

That was 5 years ago, and I’m still happily no contact with my brother. And I’ve just never heard from her again.

15 years of friendship, besties since elementary school, all tossed aside for a man with anger issues, a developing drinking problem, and a slob who lets mom do everything for him 👍.

#15

Just...faded away. It happens, as you get older in life - you realize relationships generally aren't forever, that's okay. New ones take there places.

#16

He had a sudden early onset of paranoid schizophrenia at age 20. In less than a week, he was convinced that all of us (his friends) did something vaguelly horrible to him that he couldn't quite describe, while angrily claiming the gov't had cameras now aimed into his bedroom.

We were best friends. Got drunk the first time together. Went on summer vacations to the beach. He was one of the few peers I bonded with in high school. After that week, his mental state deteriorated rapidly and he spent a lot of time in inpatient since. I visited him but over time, lost contact. What I had learned was that he had completely forgotten who I was, forgotten our entire friendship and anything that had ever connected us. The lack of recognition in his eyes is something I'll never forget though.

It's obviously not his fault and I hear he's functioning much better than he used to,..but it certainly is a special kind of grief.

#17

This is about a best friend I had for many years. He'd kind of grown apart some years ago when he started spending most of his time with a *very* conservative crowd, and he drifted away from our chill friend group of folks who all had played a ton of D&D together. Eventually, to my surprise, he reached out and seemingly wanted to rekindle the friendship a little; surprising because, at that point, I had come out as a transgender woman. We chatted back and forth in a few exchanges, it was all going fine, and I was really excited that we were rebuilding the friendship, and then, out of nowhere, he apparently started sending my mom a ton of anti-trans propaganda on Facebook (a platform I'm not on) which pissed her off immensely. Needless to say, the rekindled friendship got snuffed out.

#18

Life I guess. Get older, interests and priorities change. Covid certainly accelerated it and after years of feeling guilty, you finally realize that it's hardly ever truly personal. Everything is a season and people who try to guilt you into believing otherwise are projecting most times than not. Know they're doing well and that makes me happy.

#19

Lost all respect for the dude -
I needed a job and opted to work doing the bins because work is better than no work and he wouldn't work for his dad at £80 a day as a labourer and instead opted for the £55 a week you get on state benefits. Then all he would do is spend his day drunk and high and argue when he'd forget the rules of the card games we were playing.
Felt sorry for the girl he was with too because he'd use all her money to fund his drinking and smoking and getting angry at her when he didn't have enough.

I left and never bothered contacting him again, and what's funnier is that when I did see him in the street years later, he honestly believes he did nothing wrong and that I was just a bad friend.

#20

I went to her wedding and never heard from her again.

Before the wedding she moved out to DC (and I think eventually Seattle), she's not on social media, and she changed her number. This was years ago. I still think about her. I've reached out to a mutual friend about her and that resulted in nothing. I'm not sure if she's in contact with anyone from our hometown. She was my best friend growing up.

I still would like to know what I did wrong. I miss you, Alex.

#21

Her boyfriend violently attacked me when I got between them and she said it was her right to date bad guys.

#22

High school ended and we didn't stay in touch. Tried to at first, but then I think we just got busy.

#23

I stopped talking to her for a couple years due to some feelings I refused to admit sober. She'd try to reach out me once a year, since unbeknownst to me she kept telling everyone I was her best friend (wed known each other since we were 16), but I always ignored it out of annoyance.

She passed away in a motorcycle crash 3 years ago and it shattered me in a way I didnt think I had a right to feel.

#24

Oh, this friendship just recently ended!

We were best friends since sixth grade. He helped me feel free to be myself. In college, we would drive to each others’ towns to see each others’ concerts or performances. Our friend group stuck together no matter what and were constantly talking. He was even one of my groomsmen. My wife and I were the first people he and his girlfriend told about their engagement.

And then he moved across the country to get his Master’s degree.

The second he left town, he almost completely stopped talking to the rest of us. He even stopped talking to his fiancée, who didn’t move up with him (the plan had been for them to be long distance while she stayed home and he rushed through his program). The two of them eventually started working through the distance until one day he told her she had to move in with him. She said she wasn’t sure, since they were still working through things, but he said “move in with me or you’re never hearing from me again.”

She did, and things were fine at first. Better, even. The two of them spent time together. He even texted me back for the first time since moving, and HE planned a time to hop on a game online. The day came… and he never got online. It’s been a year and I’ve still never heard from him.

Around that time last year, he changed majors and got a new group of friends. He completely stopped paying attention to his fiancée and fully dropped the rest of us back home (she even asked if he had texted us in a while and he said “I’m in [state] and they’re not. Why would I talk to them?”). He started hanging out with one girl in his new friend group a LOT, even bringing her along with him and his fiancée when looking at new apartments. His fiancée said he wasn’t cheating, but I think this is denial.

Anyway, the two of them fought and stopped talking for a little bit, then right after they started trying to make it work again, he said “we need to set our wedding date. We should make it as soon as possible.” She got nervous and said that she thought they should go to couple’s therapy first, and he got angry and told her he hadn’t loved her in two years (so, since around the time he proposed, and a year before he demanded that she move in with him), that she never knew “the real him,” and that all she ever did was make him angry. She collected her stuff and moved back home QUICK.

In her rush, she left some personal items in his apartment, including some clothes and a pearl necklace from her father. She asked if he could send it back and he said he wasn’t going to waste time mailing her “junk.” However, a couple days later, she saw on his Instagram that he was wearing her shirts and her dad’s pearl necklace. Furious, she texted him about it and he said he’d be blocking her “until he could figure out shipping costs.” A couple weeks later, he unblocked her to say he was “forgiving her for all of her manipulative behavior” and that he “didn’t hold any resentment,” but that he thought it’d be “better for the two of them to go no-contact.”

I don’t know what caused the quiet, sweet, quirky kid I grew up with to become such an absolute monster, especially since the rest of his family has always been so sweet to me. Illegal substances? Losing himself in the freedom of a new place? Was he always like this and I just never knew? Who knows. All I know is that fifteen years of friendship with him went down the drain once I found out how he’d been acting.

#25

I told him 'hey many my girl doesn't like large crowds when she doesn't know most people there, we should hang just two couples a few times' he said that was cool and then when we showed up there was literally a party of 30 people there and he just shrugged and said he thought it'd be fine once we were already there.

Then I recognized the pattern of - every time I suggested something he just ignored it and did whatever he wanted anyway.

It all came to a head when the new Tears of the kingdom game came out. I invited him over to check it out since he didn't have it and he flipped it into me packing up my stuff and coming to his house to play it and then suddenly he was inviting six other people over and they were gonna bring their playstations too and we could play call of duty instead.

I just said 'sounds cool' and didn't show up and when he asked me about it I replayed the entire conversation and he just said 'yeah but mike was bored and wanted to play CoD and that sounded more fun for everyone'.

#26

I got depressed in my teens and gradually drifted away from him and everyone else.

It got worse into my 20’s. I watched everyone move on with girlfriends, jobs, kids and homes while I self-loathed almost into my 30’s.

I’m in my mid 40’s now and have struggled to fully reconnect or make any new friends. I’m still included in all these old friend circles but like one foot in and one foot out. Present but not really there, if that makes sense.

I want it but I don’t want it. I go to work and my social battery is drained and anything else feels like to much work.

It’s me. I’m the problem.

#27

He woke up one day and decided not to be my friend anymore. It has eternally messed me up, because I thought we'd be a part of each other's lives forever.

#28

My cat passed away and I was devastated. When I told my bestfriend about it, she didn't even check in on me. The next text she sent was about haggling the price of the laptop I'm selling... even when she knows I need the money as I just spent a lot trying to save my cat.

This was just yesterday.

#29

He was in a homeless shelter in Springfield, IL (I'm in Chicago) three months ago & his phone is disconnected now. I'm worried about him.

#30

Gradual fade out. Will never know why. We were close for years, always had good times together, even travelled together once. And now basically strangers.

#31

She became a super bridezilla. She kept bullying me to contribute more to the wedding even though I lived on the other side of the country and was in grad school at the time, so being a broke-a*s student, there was only so much I could do. She always rebutted, "Well, I'm in grad school too, and I'm having to plan this wedding!" 1. It's YOUR wedding. 2. She was taking ONE online class. I was a full-time grad student with an assistantship, so I was basically working full-time as well.

The final straw broke when her fiancee called me to yell at me for being unsupportive. I was literally half asleep when he called because I had barely slept in days. Then, everything started to connect -- all the times she guilted me into flying to visit her, while she visited me once and complained about it the whole time; the time I flew to visit her, and she ghosted me for hours to go have phone intimacy with her long-distance boyfriend; the time I visited her, and she got lost all day, and I had to scrounge around in her kitchen for something to eat because I was starving. That's just the tip of the iceberg.

I was bullied and friendless growing up, but after that phone call from her fiancee, I finally realized that I didn't have to put up with this nonesense anymore, and I called it quits. It was honestly a relief. The last I heard, her fiancee/husband came out and left her for a man, and she started self-publishing her fan fiction through Amazon.

#32

I had my first (and hopefully only) seizure at their house one evening. I asked at least 3 times to call the ambulance as I was in a disorienting state and couldn't figure it out for myself. They refused. It took hours of convincing until they drove me to the hospital.

Weeks after the seizure, I was trying to become healthy again, get back into working out, cutting out substances me and the best friend use to share together.

Best friend made back handed comments about how I shouldnt be bettering my life, how I'm small enough and don't need to go to the gym. Those comments combined with not calling the ambulance didn't sit well with me and I just kind of drifted away from the friendship.

Later on, realized the relationship was very controlling and that some really toxic comments were made by the best friend about me behind my back.

We were friends for about 5 years, they were my first friend out of highschool that I trusted right off the hop. We had a lot of good times together and I miss some of the moments. Its been almost 2 years no contact. I've wanted to reach out and explain my side but I don't want to reopen those wounds because they never reached out either.

#33

I had an online gaming friend. I remember we met on the demo for battlefield bad company 2 and I rarely have my mic on but today I did. Said some ridiculous stuff he found funny and we had been gaming and chatting ever since.

This is one of the rare friends that you’d always be excited to play with or just chat with, make each other laugh and goofy stuff.

So that was roughly 2010 I was a junior in high school and he was too. We talked all the way up until around 2022 when I had a lot going on and he did too.

Last I remember he had moved somewhere in the US and kind of started a new life out here from PR where he was raised. I remember he gave me a new number to text him and I saved it and also had the old number too. Around that time I had sent messages to both numbers because I forgot which was new just to talk say hey and see what’s up, but nothing.

No replies, no activity logged on PlayStation, nothing on their socials, just like disappeared.

I just wonder what happened to him or if he decided to stop talking to me or what. Couldn’t say.

But if I could say something to him now it would be I miss you man and I hope you’ve been having a wonderful life. Hope to hear from you.

#34

She fell deep into a pit of alcoholism, mental health issues, and (I suspect) other substances. I stuck around for a long time, but she refused to get the help she needed, and used me as a constant crisis counselor for the issues she wasn’t dealing with. She also completely stopped showing up as a friend to me while expecting me to be available at the drop of a hat. She even brought down all of the events leading up to my wedding.

It’s very sad, but the relationship was bringing me so much pain and anxiety, and I could no longer help someone who wouldn’t help themselves.

I so badly hope she gets better, but I have no interest in rekindling the friendship regardless. The damage done is just too much.

#35

We were best friends from 12 to 30.

We pretty much did everything together. Family trips. First strip club together. First vegas trip.... pretty much told each other everything. I considered him my best friend.

Admittedly he was going through some stuff, and one day he just stopped returning my calls and texts. Totally ghosted.

I think he's got a fiancee now and has a career in tech or tech-adjacent. We're in our 40's now

Rich, where ever you are I hope you're doing well. I love you man and I miss you.

#36

I pushed away the most Important man I've ever had in my life because he was too positive and my depression made me believe that I couldn't handle his positivity. He called me about 4 years ago for the last time, and I looked at the phone and literally thought not right now man. About 5 months later I was feeling better and reached out with a text inviting him over for dinner. About 10 days later my wife saw that he had passed away from cancer. My text had gotten to him while he was passing away in bed. I missed my last shot to speak to him. Im telling you it still hurts today. He was the one person other than my wife that i can say I owe my life to. He taught me how to think and approach challenges, gave me inspiration, and showed me what loving and giving freely meant. Reach out. You dont have forever.

#37

He found out I was gay and cut me off.

#38

Im am American who spent 10 of his formative years in Canada. A childhood friend of mine and I kept in contact after I moved to the us. I ended up joining the army and had a combat deployment. Was going to have him as a groomsman in my wedding even.

Kept in contact with the guy for years and was close until he told me it was my duty as a veteran to go to the capitol and make sure the election went the right way on Jan 6. I explained how that was a twisted understanding of what my oath was and that I didn't support military coups or some sort of revolution.

He responded by telling me I wasn't worthy of being a veteran and all sorts of crazy stuff. Cut him out of my life that night.

Tldr a Canadian childhood friend told me, a combat vet, I needed to be part of the group going to Jan 6 to protest the election and make sure it went to trump.

#39

He joined a cult and then stopped talking to anyone not Jewish, sadly including me.

#40

His wife (who introduced my fiance and I initially) went off the rails for some reason and started telling other friend groups how my fiance and I were spreading rumors that they were cheating on each other.

It’s like she just wanted to destroy my fiance and I’s relationship.

She legit cornered my friends at a social engagement and told them hon my finance was this awful person and spreading lies.

Then did the same thing to my fiances friend group, but that I was spreading the lies.

My buddy said he had to trust his wife (even though he witnessed and acknowledged the lying).

So yeah we don’t talk anymore.

#41

She got married during COVID lockdowns and still promised I'd be able to go and be a big part of her big day, which wasn't the case, I couldn't go, due to what I suspect is her controlling partner not liking me very much.

We stayed friends anyway after that, even though I was hurt, but as time went on I just felt less and less like I mattered. She'd come to me for advice but never seemed to actually listen to it and never seemed to want to chat to me for the sake of chatting. She ended up having kids while I've stayed childless and we just drifted apart, different life paths I suppose.

I still resent her husband to this day. I guess he won.

#42

I have two to speak of. Both started out as childhood friends.

The first, I knew as young as 5-6 years old. My family actually lived in the house he grew up in until I was a few months old. We used to do everything together over the years.

Fast forward to high school, he started changing. He turned from friend to bully, particularly making fun of medical issues I had as a result of getting t-boned off a mountain bike by an SUV when I was 15. Due to other extenuating issues (parents divorcing, homelessness, other medical issues), I ended up dropping out of school altogether not long after the penultimate incident.

Fast forward 2+ decades, I get a message from him out of the blue on FB. He messaged to apologize for how he acted and asked for forgiveness. I did a bit of digging, it looked like he had hit the bottle HARD over the years (and possibly other things) which could explain how he changed so much as a teen as well. I figured he was in some sort of 12 Step program, so I sent a three word response:

"I forgive you."

He never responded. Never heard from him again.

-

While the first story was sad, the second is infuriating.

During the second half of my still-friendship with the first, the second came into the picture. We were even tighter, hanging out and doing tons of things together all the way into our 20s and even parts of 30s.

His actions that ended the friendship, I could never have imagined would happen if I didn't see it for myself.

In 2017, I got married. He was living across the country and flew in as I asked him to be a groomsman. Money was tight for him, so I even covered the cost of his tux rental. All seemed to go well at the time.

Fast forward a few years. Apparently he had been texting back and forth with my wife, which on the surface I didn't think twice about as she did so with several of my pre-marriage friends. This one, however, had taken to propositioning her to fly across the country, solo, to have an affair with him (mind you, he is/was ALSO married!) I was speechless when she showed me the texts.

I did the only thing I could: I took screenshots, sent them to HIS wife, told him to go touch himself with a telephone pole wrapped in 20 grit, then blocked them both. That idiot threw away a friendship of over 35 years with his actions.

If I ever happen to run into him in the future, I'm still going to clock him so hard that he'll be a front page feature on /r/LooneyToonPhysics.

#43

Driving home from court after making the marriage split official, she calls me to tell me that she and my best friend (who was best man at our wedding) are dating. Haven't spoken to either of them since, it put a massive divide in our friend group.

#44

We decided to live together.....

most people probably already know thats enough lol. (never live with your best friend. The odds are not in your favour)

But basically, my gf at the time had a "best friend" this BF was ***awful*** she lied ***constantly*** like breathing, was rude, annoying, couldn't pick up on hints, stole, etc. etc.

but regardless, she was her bf so I tolerated her.

My best friend slept around constantly. He'd sleep with anything that moved.

My GF asked him if he could please just refrain from sleeping with this one woman. All her other friends are fair game, but not this one.

....so of course they started sleeping together.

which turned into her being around ***constantly***, whether he was home or not, she'd always be in the apartment. It was infuriating. Especially because of the theft problem.

eventually we decided to move out and get our own places.

We decided we'd each help each other get the big stuff out, then we'd clean the apartment. We smoked inside so we had to scrub all the walls and stuff.

I helped him load up all his big stuff. But the truck was just a 2-seater, so he told me and my gf to hang back, while he and his unloaded their load. then we'd move my big stuff, and clean.

........he just never came back.

we talked a little after that. I was pissed. held a grudge for a year or so.

but he kept dating her in the most toxic, on/off relationship I've ever seen.

we drifted apart.

last straw was when I found out he got married and never even told me about it.

I decided at that point, we were no longer friends and moved on. We still talk on christmases because all my friends do a group video chat. but we don't talk in between anymore.

------

hes a fitness instructor now. Still lives back in my hometown. He's had 4-5 wives now at this point. and he's about to divorce another.

#45

Turns out narcissists are almost impossible to identify as 13 year olds but substantially easier once you hit your 30s. It was like she was mentally stuck in the selfishness you'd expect from a teenager but as a full-blown adult. She expected concessions made to her that one would make for a growing/learning child, and would expect you to routinely be the adult in situations when they get to be the child. Like for example if something was wrong with her order at a restaurant she would expect you to take care of that for her so they don't get seen as "a jerk", but then when hanging out would say very mean things to you and backhanded compliments, or she would praise themselves in a way that elevates themselves but then insults you.

#46

They grew up. I didn’t. I have since, and tried to bring things back together. But it’s so different now. 100% my fault.

#47

Was just never noticed by 'em at the end of the day. Would plan everything, help them with their problems, and build a wall of texts over the months that would always go unanswered.

Last thing I planned was a get together to see No Way Home. They brought all their new friends, and I realized I was more of a spectator than a friend to him. Always was.

Last I heard all his college friends stopped talking to him after graduation. While I have a great group of friends from college (and a single great one from highschool still lol) who talk to me just as much as I talk to them.

#48

She ghosted me after I slept with the best friend of her boyfriend. Apparently she was secretly in love with her bf's best friend. After telling me this, she told me I was not allowed to tell anyone, and also not allowed to see him anymore. I disagreed.

#49

I don’t know what he is up to right now. We would argue once a year over something dumb and he would go nuclear, blocking me everywhere and telling me we will never speak again.

Then at the end of every year his mom would bring us together or he reaches out. This happened like five times and I realized I need friends that I can rely on being there, this guy could block me at any moment and stop talking for long time so I had to cut him off for good, for more stable friendships.

#50

Was friends with a dude from the time we were in pre-school up until the end of high-school. Then never heard from them again, neither of us ever reached out etc.

Low-key kinda hurts because that's the type of friendship you would want as an old person in their 80+'s "remember that time as kids" type talks.

#51

She got scratched by her own dog. It quickly progressed into Sepsis and was gone 2 days later.

#52

She passed away last month after a courageous battle with colon cancer. Still unsure how to live life without her.

#53

I'm 43 he would now be 39. I moved my senior year of highschool, had no real friends anymore and was just kind of starting life over. I met him shortly after moving in. We played football together, then started playing video games together. We both even moved out and became room mates for a bit.

I hung out with this guy every day for like 12-13 years. Then I moved to another state. Yet that didn't stop our friendship we transitioned to playing games online and talked over skype, then teamspeak, then discord. I'd call and just talk to him every day on my dull 45 minute drive either into work or home from work one of the two.

We played all the MMO's together, played or tried most multiplayer/co-op games. We were just really great friends, best friends. 7 years later I moved back just down the street from him.

We hung out once in person because we were both just busy with life but still playing games with each other. He then got sick with covid, and the rest was a blur really. It was the fast acting terrible strain of covid that he got. He was okay one day said he had a cold. The next day his mom called me and told me he was in the hospital.

We talked over text a couple of times and joked about how I was going to finally catch up to him in a game and maybe even surpass him. 2 days later he was put on a ventilator, 1 day after that he was brain gone... 4 days after that, he was removed from the life support and that was the end... In his passing he did one final amazing thing. He donated his remaining healthy organs to those in need because he was always a helper and it's what he wanted.

I knew him for 22 great years. I knew him probably better than anyone else did. We talked about everything and nothing at the same time. I tell everyone that the day he passed away I lost my little brother and the world has never been the same since.

I still miss him terribly and there are just some moments when I'm still playing the games we played where I can't do much. I'm too busy crying over the memories of the years we spent playing the game together and just missing him even more.

There are some games like World of Warcraft where I can't even look at the game any more because that was basically a decade of us playing.

#54

They left my life. My alcoholic self ruined many relationships. Best I can do now is to make sure it doesn’t happen again by staying sober.

#55

TL,DR: Moved, lost touch, got back in touch but he has dementia.

We met 54 years ago, both had just turned 20, shared three or four rental houses at different times in those first 10 years, and hung out together a lot. We had some fun, and he helped me out a few times. Once when I had a business conflict and was getting scammed, he stepped up and bullied the franchise owner into letting me out of the contract, and another time when I was unemployed he sold me a car for $50 (I had that car for three years). I always took him along when I was buying cars (I've had many), because he had the gift of the gab and was always able to get me a great deal.

About 27 years ago, his girlfriend got pregnant, had the baby and he seemed ok with it. One day I was visiting while she was out, and he confided in me that he was going to get a DNA test to be sure the child was his.

Idk why he thought she might have been with someone else, but he was the jealous type; he once said he "knew" that I had been sleeping with his former girlfriend - he was wrong.

Anyway, after him telling about the DNA test I distanced myself from him, and then I lost touch after I moved to another state for my work. Neither of us had mobile phones back then.

One day about 22 years ago, I bumped into his former girlfriend (the one he thought I was cheating on him with) who had also moved to my new city, and she told me he had hurt her a couple of times.

Three years ago, I saw his brother on Facebook and made contact. He told me my former friend was in hospital due to not taking his meds for diabetes, and the reason he wasn't taking them was because he had dementia.

I called him when his brother told me he was well enough to talk, and we had a short conversation, but after a while he wasn't making a lot of sense.

I happened to be going to that city later that month, and decided to visit him with some photos in the rest home he had been moved to. When I got there, they told me his now adult daughter had moved him to a home in the state where she lived just a few days previously.

I called him a couple of times but he didn't answer, and I messaged him the pictures, but didn't get a reply. His daughter told me had had forgotten how to use a phone, and to charge it. A while ago, I called the home's landline and they put me through to him, but he didn't reply to anything I said. His brother told me they are medicating him because he was getting aggressive with the staff and other residents.

Sad, really, that he has deteriorated so badly.

But I'm not really sad about losing the friendship, in spite of the times we shared. I think I liked him back then because he had so much self confidence, and when I was younger that was something I was lacking. None of my girlfriends liked him. In actual fact he was a jerk.

#56

I had a childhood best friend (second grade) that i was super tight with. her nieces called me auntie, we called each other's moms "mom," we went on each other's family roadtrips, vacationed together, etc. i was at her side when her dad died from alcoholism and when she had to get an abortion. she knew all of the stuff that had gone down with my family's legal issues. our lives had been entwined so much that it really did feel like we would always be in each other's lives.

at the end of the friendship, we didn't see each other much because of covid and distance, but we still talked every day. i told her when i started dating a guy from the south (i'm from the north) and talk to her about it because that was just what we did.

a few years ago, a mutual friend of ours messaged me asking how i could let him be around a racist, let alone date one, and that my supposed "best friend" had been telling him for months that my then-boyfriend was racist because he was from the south and spoke positively about a town she had never been to but was convinced to be full of active klan members. again, we're all from the north and had never been to the part of the south my then-boyfriend was from. the mutual friend told me then that my friend had also done illegal substances the night she told him and had been doing it since covid started. i tried talking to my best friend about it because what the actual f right? but she refused to apologize and said she had done the right thing by saying this stuff to our mutual friend.

i blocked her, am now super-tight with the mutual friend (who no longer speaks to her either), and have moved to the south to live with my now-husband and our three cats. :).

#57

Invited me to his wedding with his new girlfriend. Then called about a month out and said the wedding was cancelled. Then he disappeared.

I found out years later he was arrested for sleeping with a student. So, yeah, we don't hangout anymore.

#58

He got married to a Chinese girl and moved there. We stayed in touch, so no real issues in my mind. Hr wa happy and that was what was important.

Then a month ago we were at his grandads birthday. I didn't find out he was in the country, let alone in town, untill I arrived there. Then I heard that he made time to hang out with some other friends before hand. That hurt, but I'd get over it.

He then largely ignored me, and when I finally pinned hi. Down with a conversation about comic books, he ends up derailing into a rant against trans people and in defense of Rowling.

After that, I'm not really looking to maintain that friendship anymore.

#59

His dad got caught with CSAM so his reaction was to find God and cut out the negative influences (anyone not in his evangelical cult) out of his life.

What annoys me the most is that if he called me today and said he needed help I’d be there in a heartbeat.

#60

He came over on January 28th if this year. I got a call from his wife that he passed away on February 26th.

I’m still processing the events.

#61

We just drifted apart very slowly. It wasn't nasty, although it is sad.

#62

She went from being an emo kid not caring what other people thought of her and making cool diy clothes to the most christian tradwife I've ever seen on facebook. pretty sure she denounced her bisexuality too.

#63

He was predestined to inherit his family's temple. He hated the idea until one day during college he had a spiritual awakening. Now he's a devout Buddhist priest in Japan. I'm sure he's doing great.

#64

He was always a Christian, but then he became a cop and it IMMEDIATELY went to his head and he became a self righteous jerk who now has power to hurt others.

#65

Passed away at 17 from heart attack in his sleep. We were playing League and chatting on Skype that same night. I'm 28 and it still hurts. It gets better, but since then I have had this little sadness in me I can't really shake off. Just learnt to live with it and appreciate that he's still in my memory.

#66

There were two.

First was never able to get out of his own head, mental issues with illegal substances dependence. We used to share a crib when we were born but by 18 it fell apart. There was some ups and downs for him, but two weeks before I left CA at 24 I found him dazed and homeless in the street with some older dude taking advantage of him. That really broke me up.

Second was my guy from 17-27, but he fell apart around 21 when his first girlfriend left him. Took years, thought I could save him from himself; but at the end he was just a massive spiraling alcoholic leaving cry’s for help that he wouldn’t use or want. He started stealing from me, and being weird around my wife ( I moved him in the last six months, got him a job paying 3x what he used to make; but he was screwing it all up) and I had to literally kick him out…last day involved dragging him out actually. His car broke down near where I had been married (he was the best man actually and he tried to sabotage my wedding) and he called me for help. I wished him the best and hung up on him.

I checked in on him a year or so later, it got worse.

Both really hurt to lose.

#67

First one was in high school. I moved away, tried to keep in touch, we're both just busy I guess.

Since then, I keep making friends and they keep having kids and I keep not wanting kids or really to be around kids. I make friends with people who don't have kids, they tell me they don't want kids, I know I wont be having any, and then they have kids. Like, come on, we talked about this!

#68

We went to live together , first year all good ,second year suddenly bills started going up and she had all the invoices ,when i would ask her to show me she would send me the calculator and would say in the winter prices are high , i stayed with the doubt, third year we got a rommate that happened to be an old friend of mine, during winter he would pay the rent and i was thinking his rent would go directly into the bills. but the rent was split clean in 2 for me and her ,after some months my roomie saw that i was suspicious and at the end of the winter he used an excuse about his car expenses and asked if there is anything extra we need to pay. she said we get 2 big bills just in october and may.

she stole me 200 euro extra monthly for 6 months the second year.

needless to say we are moving separate ways in couple of months and shes always somehow away since she understood that i know.

biggest heartbreak ever.

#69

IDK. He got married. I went to his wedding and then CUT. He ghosted me and I haven't talked to him since. That was 20 years ago.

#70

She just, never spoke to me ever again.
We had been friends since we were 3 years old, lived together the last 4 years or so that we were in contact. We had our ups and downs as flatmates and she was very controlling but otherwise nothing friendship-ending. I had to move out because I couldn't afford the rent and had to move in with my parents. She was sad I was going but understood and we planned to meet up soon. I texted her a few times over the next few months and she never responded, still hasn't and its been almost 2 years now. I dont know if i'll ever know what happened.

#71

Growing up I had a core group of friends that lived in my neighborhood and thought we would all be friends for life. The first to drop out of the group lost his father to a heart attack while we were still in middle school. I tried to be there for him and still hangout but he took it really hard and went into a Goth phase. Then in high school he completely changed to a football jock. We just drifted apart. 2nd friend became friends with a rather trashy person who stole from me and one of our other friends. We gave them an ultimatum of the new friend or us and he chose the new friend so we stopped hanging out. Then his family moved to the other side of town and we stopped seeing each other completely. 3rd friend graduated and went to college across the country and broke all contact with everyone. Haven't heard from him since. I even tried going to his house to find out from his mom when he'd be home but he avoided contact so I let it go. 4th friend graduated and went in the military. We met up one time after his basic training and then he got married and had kids. Everything he visited he didnt have time to meet up with friends only family and havent seen him since. We used to occasionally catch up on Facebook but havent spoken to him in years.

#72

First day of sophomore year after hanging out all summer, she told me she couldn't spend time with me anymore and never spoke to me again.

It did sting.

72 Touching And Brutal Stories About How People’s Lifelong Friendships Fizzled Out

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