My post on JUly 10 describes how I found out about the death of a long-time friend.

I'm still grieving the loss.
She was twenty years older than I, and could have been my mother.
She did mother me in some ways, as she mothered many other students.
We shared a lot of music together:
we performed together at university and outside of it;
we went to classes together,
we studied with some of the same professors and coaches,
we attended concerts together.

And she was a generous friend, always ready to lend a hand or help out.
Her sense of humor uplifted me and restored me many times.
She did not flinch from the hard realities of life
(she raised three children as a single mother),
but she was indomitable and did not let anything get her down.

I am grieving the loss of someone I loved very much.