This week begins sadly as I learned of the passing of Melanie . Most of us were aware that she had been suffering ill health for some time but I don’t think any of us were expecting to lose her so soon. I first “met” Melanie when she took over from Cee Neuner as the host of Share Your World. I looked up my old posts to see when that was and actually found the first one back in September of 2018. I’ve left a link to her questions and my answers here. One thing I always loved about Melanie was the way she would comment thoughtfully on each post and she continued to do this all the time that she hosted the prompt.

Share Your World – Revisited 2018: 3 September

Di, who has been ably covering for Melanie for some time now will be continuing to host SYW and Truthful Tuesday in Melanie’s honour.

Questions

1. Do you consider friends an extension of your family?

Not really but that doesn’t mean that I care less about them.

2. Would you confide in a friend more than you would a family member?

I would choose to confide in the person I thought would be least likely to be judgemental. In most cases that would be a family member.

3. How long have you known your best friend?

I first met my friend Gillian when we were about nine years old although we probably didn’t become good friends until a couple of years later.

4. Do you believe distance has a negative effect on friendships?

Both time and distance can be factors. It’s not that it’s not easy to keep in touch, we have phones, texts, email, zoom, facetime or good old fashioned letter writing. It’s more that “out of sight, out of mind” thing that can loosen bonds. I think that there are some friends that you can be apart from for years but be able to pick up where you left off when you meet but there are probably some relationships where once the main thing you had in common is gone (school, work, clubs etc.) the friendship might suffer.

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I’m going to use the gratitude section this week to thank Melanie’s friend and neighbour Rachel who watched over her and who has given a home to Melanie’s dog Ziggy. I don’t know Rachel but I’m sure she is a kind soul. I borrowed this picture of Ziggy from Melanie’s blog.