<html aria-label="message body"><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">Old Friends</font><div style="font-size: 16px;"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;"><br></font></div><div><div class="x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="white-space: pre-wrap; margin-inline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; color: rgb(8, 8, 9); font-variant-ligatures: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 16px;"><div dir="auto"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">The thing about old friends is not that they love you, but that they know you. </font></div><div dir="auto"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">They remember that disastrous New Year's Eve when you mixed White Russians and champagne.</font></div><div dir="auto"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">They remember how you wore that red maternity dress until everyone was sick of seeing the blaze of it in the office; the uncomfortable couch in your first apartment and the smoky stove in your beach rental. </font></div></div><div class="x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="white-space: pre-wrap; margin-inline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; color: rgb(8, 8, 9); font-variant-ligatures: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 16px;"><div dir="auto"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">They look at you and don't really think you look older because they've grown old along with you, and, like the faded paint in a beloved room, they're used to the look. </font></div></div><div class="x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="white-space: pre-wrap; margin-inline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; color: rgb(8, 8, 9); font-variant-ligatures: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 16px;"><div dir="auto"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">And then one of them is gone and you've lost a chunk of yourself. </font></div></div><div class="x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="white-space: pre-wrap; margin-inline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; color: rgb(8, 8, 9); font-variant-ligatures: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 16px;"><div dir="auto"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">The stories of the terrorist attacks of 2001, the tsunami, the Japanese earthquake always used numbers.</font></div><div dir="auto"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">The deaths of thousands, a measure of how great the disaster.</font></div></div><div class="x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="white-space: pre-wrap; margin-inline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; color: rgb(8, 8, 9); font-variant-ligatures: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 16px;"><div dir="auto"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">Catastrophe is numerical. </font></div><div dir="auto"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">Loss is singular, one beloved at a time.</font></div></div><div class="x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="white-space: pre-wrap; margin-inline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; color: rgb(8, 8, 9); font-variant-ligatures: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div dir="auto" style="font-size: 16px;"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;"><br></font></div><div dir="auto" style="font-size: 16px;"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>- Anna Quindlen</font></div></div></div></div></body></html>