ree | friends, now and always

I've been procrastinating, just now, by going through my internet bookmarks at random. One such page was archived from years gone by. I saw a familiar name, clicked it, and unexpectedly found myself reading what appears to be the real-life name of an online friend from back then.

Curious, I plugged it into Google.

If the results I found are the same person as my friend, then they have had some unfortunate things happen. There was a long, difficult time in their life, but they seem to be doing well now.

I'm glad to think they're happy. I'm kicking myself that I didn't reach out back then, but the dates I found... their difficulties had some serious overlap with mine. Perhaps we would have just piled our woes together and neither of us been any better for it. Certainly I wasn't in any position to help, no matter how much I would have liked to be. And I don't even know if I have the right person - how common is that name, in their region? How could I know that? I'm not about to contact a random internet person on the off-chance that I knew them half a lifetime ago; I am far too shy and anxious for that.

Still, if I did find the person I knew.... it warms my heart to learn that they're well.