Jonathan (@pourfairelevide) experienced a devastating loss nearly 15 years ago when his father passed away. In his final moments, his dad dictated a heartfelt note to his nurse, Omar. After his passing, the greatest gift left for Jonathan was this note, printed on a piece of paper with their home address on the back. Jonathan carried that paper folded in his wallet every day—until the wallet was stolen, and the note disappeared with it. Heartbroken, he thought it was lost forever. But a few years later, an unmarked envelope appeared at his doorstep. Inside, to his amazement, was his wallet. The money was gone, but the note remained, neatly folded, a priceless memory preserved. In October 2023, Jonathan shared the story on X, along with a picture of the cherished paper.
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Wrinkled with creases, the paper holds the weight of memories Jonathan shared with his father and the deep love they had for each other. “I wanted to start by letting you know how much I love you and how proud I am of all your accomplishments,” his father wrote. Now a PhD student, Jonathan cherishes these words more than ever. “Your accomplishments exceeded my expectations, and regardless of what obstacles arise in your life, I want you to keep focused on accomplishing your goals and making us proud.”
The poignant letter continued with his dad inspiring Jonathan to stay focused and be courageous. “I know it must be very difficult for you to stay focused while you’re seeing me struggle through my illness. I am very proud of your strength and courage in helping me deal with my illness and being able to stay focused on your studies at the same time. Even if I am not here at some point, I want you to continue to be strong and courageous and to help your mother get through this. Even if I am not here, I will always be in your heart and watching over you.”
The old man continued by telling his son that in the future, he should find a woman and get married, which, as it seems, he has done. In a post on his website, Jonathan recently announced that he just got married to a woman named Jane who writes poetry. “In the future, I’d like to see you meet a woman who is your equal, who is as intelligent, loving, kind, and brave as you are. Then I’d like to see you pass on your virtues to your children, and so on. Until we are reunited in heaven, in the future, I wish you and your mother all of the happiness that life has to offer. Be good to yourself, to your mother, and to your future family. I will always love you forever.”
The tear-jerking letter caught the attention of 1.7 million people who liked the tweet, and hundreds of them left touching comments. “The most touching thing,” commented @harrietgriffey. @davverodomini told Jonathan the letter is a “touchstone for the entire remainder of your journey.” @lj198767 gave him a suggestion, “Make a copy to carry and put the original in a safety deposit box.”
In a comment, @charitymain306 reflected how even the most evil of people have a tiny spark of humanity in their hearts. “As much as it sucks they stole your wallet, both the letter in its raw, inspiring, loving & supportive tone & the act of thieves with humanity mailing it back gives me a little glimpse of hope there is still goodness in this world,” Another person, @karebearscare shared a similar episode, “I carry around in my wallet this $2 bill that my dad gave me right before he got sick for 2 years and passed. And, funnily enough, today is the 9th anniversary of my father’s death, so your tweet just broke me - in a good way. Kismet-like!”
Ladder leads out of darkness.Photo credit 
Woman's reflection in shadow.Photo credit 
Young woman frazzled.Photo credit 
Will your current friends still be with you after seven years?
Professor shares how many years a friendship must last before it'll become lifelong
Think of your best friend. How long have you known them? Growing up, children make friends and say they’ll be best friends forever. That’s where “BFF” came from, for crying out loud. But is the concept of the lifelong friend real? If so, how many years of friendship will have to bloom before a friendship goes the distance? Well, a Dutch study may have the answer to that last question.
Sociologist Gerald Mollenhorst and his team in the Netherlands did extensive research on friendships and made some interesting findings in his surveys and studies. Mollenhorst found that over half of your friendships will “shed” within seven years. However, the relationships that go past the seven-year mark tend to last. This led to the prevailing theory that most friendships lasting more than seven years would endure throughout a person’s lifetime.
In Mollenhorst’s findings, lifelong friendships seem to come down to one thing: reciprocal effort. The primary reason so many friendships form and fade within seven-year cycles has much to do with a person’s ages and life stages. A lot of people lose touch with elementary and high school friends because so many leave home to attend college. Work friends change when someone gets promoted or finds a better job in a different state. Some friends get married and have children, reducing one-on-one time together, and thus a friendship fades. It’s easy to lose friends, but naturally harder to keep them when you’re no longer in proximity.
Some people on Reddit even wonder if lifelong friendships are actually real or just a romanticized thought nowadays. However, older commenters showed that lifelong friendship is still possible:
“I met my friend on the first day of kindergarten. Maybe not the very first day, but within the first week. We were texting each other stupid memes just yesterday. This year we’ll both celebrate our 58th birthdays.”
“My oldest friend and I met when she was just 5 and I was 9. Next-door neighbors. We're now both over 60 and still talk weekly and visit at least twice a year.”
“I’m 55. I’ve just spent a weekend with friends I met 24 and 32 years ago respectively. I’m also still in touch with my penpal in the States. I was 15 when we started writing to each other.”
“My friends (3 of them) go back to my college days in my 20’s that I still talk to a minimum of once a week. I'm in my early 60s now.”
“We ebb and flow. Sometimes many years will pass as we go through different things and phases. Nobody gets buttsore if we aren’t in touch all the time. In our 50s we don’t try and argue or be petty like we did before. But I love them. I don’t need a weekly lunch to know that. I could make a call right now if I needed something. Same with them.”
Maintaining a friendship for life is never guaranteed, but there are ways, psychotherapists say, that can make a friendship last. It’s not easy, but for a friendship to last, both participants need to make room for patience and place greater weight on their similarities than on the differences that may develop over time. Along with that, it’s helpful to be tolerant of large distances and gaps of time between visits, too. It’s not easy, and it requires both people involved to be equally invested to keep the friendship alive and from becoming stagnant.
As tough as it sounds, it is still possible. You may be a fortunate person who can name several friends you’ve kept for over seven years or over seventy years. But if you’re not, every new friendship you make has the same chance and potential of being lifelong.