A rough year for our group of friends

In my life, I have been blessed with amazing friends.  One group has a friend that goes all the way back to my high school days.  Stephanie married Pat, and he had a group that also went back to his high school days.  One of them went to college locally, and before we all had kids we were pretty much inseparable.  In fact, we had a wedding photo taken on the altar when we were married.  Since that day, there have been five spouses and eight kids added.  We are a very close group, and although we don't get to spend a great deal of time together anymore, we are always there for each other.

It's been a tough year though.  Early in the summer, a friend named Sarah lost her father very unexpectedly.  At the end of the summer, Tom lost his father after a lengthy illness.  Andrew's brother passed just a couple of weeks later, and Jen lost her mom last week.  I was off work and was able to attend the funeral visitation.  I guess we are reaching that age where these things will happen more often but it's a lot for our group in a short period of time.  I'm grateful we all have each other.