Small towns: Real life, it is always personal

It’s been a transition from the urban environment to living in a small town. Small towns are different and they are very personal.  Unlike the big city, you make real friendships and you learn to care about your friends and their day to day experiences

We have embraced small town living and though that made many great friend s and small town relationships that are very enduring and, I hope, long lasting, but real life rears its ugly head from time to time.

About a year ago one of my most creative small town friends, an internationally known photographer introduced me to one of his childhood friends. He came into the shop and because of our creative commonality, we talked at length about out creative processes and how we did our craft. Given the opportunity of time, we likely would have become fast friends. The next day he went back to his home and was killed by a hit and run driver. A brilliant, creative career wiped out far too soon and I was left with helping a dear friend deal with that loss. Something no one is really equipped to do.

Today, some of our very dearest friends, who own a local business we often patronize, lost their god daughter, a young woman whom I had the chance to meet when she came in with our friend to see the  shop a  few months back. Full of life, she was having a great time and I enjoyed talking with her about our antiques and all the “cool stuff’ we had.

Sadly tonight, she took her life, for reasons only known to her, her family now grieves, and we grieve for both her and for our friends who must face an insufferable loss and try to process this loss.

There is a humanity to living in a small town that is sadly lacking in big cities.

Small towns are real world, not a sound bite on TV.