When I was 8yo a new girl arrived in my class...I didn't go to the local school, but it turned out she lived in the road behind mine...there was a lane from my house to hers, so basically she lived just behind me.
This girl was feisty, obviously very bright and über confident.
Get parents and mind hit it off. She came on holiday with us that summer. We moved to primary school and she was in the other class (2 classes per year). We weren't friends in school, but we're out of school as our parents were friends and we lived close.
We moved to high school, and she made friends with the "hard" girls who smoked etc...I was the opposite. But we remained close out of school...she was the person I turned to when I started my periods etc.
When she was15 she moved to the next city, when I was 18 went abroad, and she had a baby. Our lives were very different and we had no interest in each other, although our parents stayed in touch... even though her parents moved to Scotland.
Our parents then lost touch. My DF died, and when talking to my DM about the family a couple of years agi she said she thought the DF must have died otherwise he would have been on touch.
My powers of Google in a moment of boredom have brought up my childhood friend on FB. She lives 15 miles from me and looks very happy at this point in her life (I suspect she's really struggled over the past 20 years, whereas I've had it relatively easy). Our different paths in life suggest to me we wouldn't have much in common now.
I also found out her DF died recently (since my DM and I discussed the family) but was living abroad since he retired,which explains why he didn't get in touch with my parents late in life, and why they couldn't contact him.
Would you contact a childhood friend you have nothing in common with now? Would you tell your DM their friend had passed away in a country far away? (DM would be interested, but probably bot believe me and tell me I was mistaken, unless I pulled up all off their FB status')
I realise I sound like a crazy stalker...