Not so very long ago, I grieved the loss of a live person - a friend who moved very far away. Having been in the military all his adult life, it was nothing to him to make friends and then leave them and never see them again. His defense mechanism was simply to move on and forget it. And that was very hard for me, because on my planet, friendship is a permanent state. I felt hurt, and abandoned, almost as if he had died. I realized I was going through the same sort of grieving process, because I had lost someone I cared for very much, someone I would never see again.

It was an extremely difficult process. I finally made it through but it took a long time. And it's only just now that I am understanding the lessons from it. In a strange way, I am grateful for the experience, because I grew from it. But that growth is painful, and you can't see it until after the fact.

You have a great support system, both virtual and 3-D. That counts for a lot.