I had a nice tight group of friends from college (and several of us go back to high school) and we have all stayed close through all of the life events—marriages (all), children (most), divorces (two of us) and remarriages (me)—so I just assumed that these were my people for life. We have never gone more than two years without convening somewhere for vacations large and small. I assumed it would only get better as everyone’s kids got older. Now I can see that things are starting to fray. Views are beginning to change, sympathies are becoming realigned, old petty grudges are re-emerging, and people are removing themselves from the group, along with their spouses and kids whom we have all grown to love..
My partner insists this is normal, and why did I think we were exceptional when we could not be more ordinary. I’m trying to kind of hold it all together because I love these people and cannot imagine my life without them in it. But I can easily see where the fault lines are as people break away. In a couple of years our group will be reduced to half of what it was.
If this was a movie, it would take a death to bring us all back together again.