This is how I set up the chairs at our last in-person Friday STS group, hosted at the Don Newton-Taylor Ranch Community Center in Albuquerque, one year ago today.

Silly looking, isn’t it?

I held group to let peers know the group was on hiatus, even though I knew this would be our last meeting for the “foreseeable future.”

Since this photo was taken, two friends who regularly attended the Friday group have died by their own hand, and one friend died of loneliness.

All three asked continuously when we would be having in-person groups again. The painful reality is it’s one year later and there is still no answer, other than our gubner’s stock reply “There is no magic date.”

I cannot forgive. My friends didn’t need to die alone.