However it happen that friends are separated, it is always sad, for the loss of a friendship is the loss of an ideal. Sadder than the pathos of unmated heart is the pathos of severed souls. It is always a pain to find a friend look on us with cold stranger’s eyes and to know ourselves dead of hopes of future closeness. It is a pain even when we have nothing to blame ourselves with, but much more so when we feel that ours is the fault.

The Art of Being a Good Friend
Hugh Black