Mrs. Ogre, that is sad about your friend. Sadder is her "SO" never though enough of her to marry her in the first place! That often happens when breeding comes before marriage.
I had a childhood friend who I spoke to in 1995 after the death of someone we both knew: an elderly woman who look after us as kids. The woman was not nice but this friend was her favourite. My mom went to the funeral. I didn't as I was in Florida. Even if I had never left San Francisco, I would never have gone anyway as this woman was horrible to me and many others she looked after. Of course, the late Agnes said how she just loved kids. It is always the people who love children the most who cause the most harm.
Mom got the gal's # and I called her. Get this...this former friend called me a "flake" and such after going on about her great job at Wells Fargo, her husband who worked for Customs at the airport, and...of course...her two children. I got to hear in a lilting voice how she was doing the most important job in the world. I sent a letter after the call. Nothing in return.
It got under my skin a little bit because a former husband and I opened our place to her on 4th of July in 1989. H*ll, I even made a long drive to get her where she was working for the summer since she was on holiday break from the job...and later made a drive-and-a-half to her parents in San Bruno and then to some place in waaaaaay in the East Bay somewhere so she could see her fiance who was in the National Guard at the time. That drive was after I worked a 9/hour stint when I was the evening manager for a fast-food place and had to make the first leg of the drive from Marin County.
I lost track of her. I would send Christmas cards but got nothing in return from this woman who thought she was too good for me: someone who really didn't have a career and life in the 'burbs. She lives in Concord, a San Francisco East Bay town. I found out online that she is divorced. That is not a surprise as this man did fool around on her while they were practically living together in her college years. Last year before I moved, I sent her a card stating how my life went and that I was living a content childfree lifestyle. Never heard back of course! Would love to have seen her response.