No.

No, no, no, no, no….

Inasmuch as I appreciate Facebook, and it has given me much, I have made dear friends there, it is NOT the place you should find out that one of your closest friends died. At 5:30 yesterday afternoon I saw a “notification” “from” my friend Joseph. But it wasn’t from Joseph. It was from someone I don’t know notifying all of us who knew and loved Joseph and were his true friends that he had died, last Wednesday, at his parent’s home. That’s all it said, that he died at his parent’s home last Wednesday.

What?

No, Joey no! (He often told me I was the only one he let call him Joey. We were friends for nearly 30 years, incredibly close friends, brother and sister type friends, who talked, for many years, every single day.)

The thing is that something happened in the last few years. We were still in touch. He called me on my birthday April 30 and we talked for hours. We talked again midsummer. We were in contact on his birthday, August 10…. and then nothing… and now he is gone.

I am so devastated I am simply gutted. He was my sweetheart, my Joey, and I had to find out on Facebook, and it’s not okay.

Maybe this is okay for some people today but it is not okay for me. I am so upset I can barely breathe. And when I called his phone today, to leave a message for his mother whom I know, hoping she would get it and know that I am here for her and to leave my number, I heard his voice and I nearly dropped the phone.

My Joey is gone. And I found out he died on Facebook, and it is not okay.