Be careful using Google to find old friends

[vito]

Sitting here at the PC on a quiet Sunday morning, I thought about an old neighbor and friend from back in my Army days many years ago. So I just typed his name and title (he was a physician) into Google, and the first item that popped up was his obituary. I felt sort of stunned since this friend was about my age and always a fitness nut. He was always a highly religious man as well and totally devoted to his family. So I was further stunned to read that the obit referenced that he was survived by his wife of over 30 years and his two children. It later mentioned his ex-wife and their seven children. The reality that his life had not only ended, but had so changed since the days we were friends and neighbors really stunned me. So on a lark I googled another old Army friend who also was a physician that I lost contact with in the 1980's. Again, the very first item that popped up was his obituary, and he was several years younger than myself. So now I was 0 or 2, and decided enough googling. Nothing makes me feel older than to find old friends are no longer on this earth.

 

[JFB]

I have been there too. . .

I googled Girl Friends from my 20's.

the first one was a shock to find her recent Obit. She had continued her Nursing Education and became a professor, but passed due to HIV. even after not seeing her for 40 years that was scary.

the next was even more scarier. She too had continued her education and was a Professor of mathamitics. the scary part she was the State Chairperson for the Hillary reelection campanig and still alive!

 

[coach]

I did the same thing last year to an old high school friend. He was a musician and played the guitar, in his early teens, better than anyone I had ever known. I hadn’t seen him since soon after high school. I was just wondering what ever happened to him. Turns out he had a family and was a session player and often played with a local band that tours up and down the east coast.

 

[Bear Paw Jack]

I was scrolling through FB this past week and saw a picture of a nice young guy that I had hired years ago. He was only 55 and had a massive heart attack. What a shock!! Really nice guy, very talented mechanically. Way to young to pass.

 

[bogus bill]

i had a woman born in England living with me years ago. She was sort of my housekeeper and baby sitter as I had gone through a bad divorce, worked graveyard and needed a woman in the house when my young daughter came. She died, had no one but me. I was writing her obituary for the newspaper and picked up the newspaper to see how it was done. There was a old girlfriend in it that I had almost married from a number of years ago! I got to attend two funerals. A few days apart. So far I have buried four women in my past life. I briefed my present wife on this before we married. She still went for it! I am one of those guys who was from a large family of aunts, uncles cousins etc, moved to the opposite side of the nation. I have googled a half dozen or so and found they died. Out of touch as my thirty cousins or so wouldn't know me as they were young when I left. None bothered to notify me when my uncles and aunts died.
I wasn't raised like that, but thats what its come to. I guess thats life when you choose to live and work 2,500 miles from home. I once had a German born girl friend whining about her kids moving off. I said Renee, you left your mom alone in Germany when you moved here at seventeen! But that was different. My only daughter and family just moved to the ocean in South Carolina, we live in Utah. Thats life.

 

[Busterswoodshop]

The older you get the more dead people you know.

 

[JackpineWillie]

The death of an old friend prompted me to look up some other friends that I had lost contact with. Found a couple, met with one and had a nice visit but found that six more had already passed. I fear I started looking way too late.

 

[blackhawknj]

I looked up a good friend from college, lost touch in 1981, he passed away in 2002-aged 46. I attended my 50th High School Reunion in 2017, about 20% of them gone.

 

[redhawker]

On the other hand, sometimes you can't find enough info. I had a good friend I lost touch with and heard through the grapevine, indirectly, several times removed, that he had passed away. Unfortunately nobody I knew or could find had any more info than that. Nobody had direct knowledge and nobody even knew when or where it happened or what happened to him. And, as far as a Google search, no dice, he had a very common name, probably just about number 2 in line with of common behind John Smith. Still don't know for sure if the rumors of his passing are true.

 

[Fox Mike]

That is how I found my best man had passed away. We lived quite a distance apart so I couldn't drive over to check in on him. I had called him numerous times and received no answer. Finally I looked up the VFW I knew he was a member of. They had a section for departed members and he was one. He had requested that he be cremated, his ashes placed in a Jack Daniel's bottle, and thrown into the Chesapeake Bay. He love to fish.

 

[Bob Wright]

My wife and I were recently reflecting on the fact we have more family in Heaven now than on Earth.

Our Christmas Eve gatherings used to be a dozen or more in attendee. Now its five, on a good day, my sister approaching 93 often fails to make our gatherings.

Bob Wright

 

[exavid]

The older you get the more dead people you know.

True indeed. I decided one was old when you knew more dead people than live ones. Excluding combat veterans.

 

[SamV]

When I was younger, I used to laugh about all my strange and eccentric older relatives. My siblings and cousins loved them all, but of course we thought they were just the weird old folks. Well, they are all gone now. Guess who the strange and eccentric old folks are now!

 

[Rick Courtright]

Hi,

The local paper had an obituary last week, of a girl in my high school graduating class (1967). She was a very kind person back then, and the article in the paper said she continued that way thru her life. That news led me to wonder about one of my favorite HS teachers. Looking him up also led to an obit, from 10 years ago.

Rick C