Some friendships don’t leave… they just change shape

Some people come into your life and change it forever.

Micki was that for me.

She was the kind of friend who didn’t need to be asked… she just knew.

When Steve passed, the world didn’t just feel quiet… it felt unfamiliar.

Like everything I knew had shifted overnight and I didn’t quite know how to stand in it yet.

And Micki didn’t try to fix that.

She just stayed.

She stayed in the ordinary moments.

In the silence.
In the texts that didn’t need a response right away.
In the music we shared back and forth like it was its own kind of language.

She had this way of knowing what I needed without asking.
Not in a big, dramatic way… but in the kind of way that actually matters.

The everyday kind.

We had days where the music was loud, the windows were down, and nothing felt heavy for a while.
Top off the Jeep, laughing, just living.

Moments that didn’t look like much from the outside… but meant everything.

Some people show up when things are good.
Some people show up when things fall apart.

Micki showed up… and never really left.

We had our things.
Songs that meant something only to us.
Little rituals.
Moments that probably didn’t look like much from the outside… but meant everything to me.

And the thing about friendships like that is…
they don’t just disappear.

They don’t end.

They change shape.

I still hear songs and think of her immediately.
Still find myself wanting to send a text.
Still feel her in moments where I can’t quite explain why.

It’s not loud.
It’s not constant.

But it’s there.

There’s this quiet comfort in realizing that love doesn’t only exist in the physical, in-the-room kind of way.

Sometimes it exists in memory.
In habit.
In the way someone changed you.

In the way you carry them forward without even thinking about it.

Micki was part of the path that got me here.

And she still is.

Some friendships don’t leave.

They just become part of who you are… in ways you don’t even realize until you need them.

🤍