I think friendships come in all shapes and sizes. We all have some friends we actively keep in touch with, even across distances, but we also all have friends we've lost track of, particularly if we've lived in multiple cities and states. It doesn't mean the friendships were any less meaningful at the time. Julia and I were friends during periods of our lives when we had very little time and emotional bandwidth, but we each supported the other in meaningful and significant ways. If she were merely an acquaintance I would not have felt the depth of grief that I did when she cut me out of her life.