Not Really Friends at All

A fellow high school classmate that I hardly knew passed away a couple of days ago from cancer and after piecing together information from a couple of sources, it was probably lung cancer and he was probably told he was terminal when he went to MD Anderson 6 months ago but just did not want anyone to know or feel sorry for him...  so, he shared the fact that everything was fine...

Is this what close friends do with each other?

I had a close friend that I had known from the third grade or over 60 years we both figured and when he got colon cancer and I got lymphoma cancer, we shared our stories, treatments, side effects, and concerns with each other and we did not not to illicit sympathy or empathy from each other but because we were close friends.  A few years back, he passed away and his wife only wanted family members invited to whatever it was that she was planning to do.

Close friends are RARE and are indeed special and if information is not shared then my guess is that the friendship was not close at all, even though it appeared to be at the time.

Being an INTJ, my friends are few and far between and after 73 years of life, I really don't miss not having friends...  but, I am fortunate that I had one close friend for several years...  my life may have been a little different if I had been blessed to have friends, but I was not, so I learned to live without the companionship of friends.

And, to be quite honest with you (as the saying goes) I am glad that I do not have any SO CALLED FRIENDS who are only my friends because of what I can do for them or to listen to them brag about themselves and their accomplishments...  usually of the financial kind moreso than of the humanitarian kind.