Is there a word for this?

[fortytwoeyes]

I was going through the list of people I follow on Tumblr the other day and noticed that someone who I'd started following right when I joined the site hadn't posted for a while. Because I quite liked seeing her posts, I ended up googling her to see if she'd maybe moved to another account, or uses Twitter, or something like that. And then I found

Comments

[questron]

Well i guess it does not make much of a difference for ourselves if the other side is truly aware of our degree of friendship for them to be emotionally attached... I know i had similar moments when i heard of some fanfic authors i had followed but never really interacted with having died.

And it's not really any different to say a workplace colleague you only meet at the kitchen sink once a blue moon or so dying... it still can hurt to an astonishing degree once you recognize they're gone and won't ever come back into your life.

btw. no, I do not know a word for it either. But does it need a special word? A friend died. And of course you'll mourn.

[asthenie_vd]

That's sad. :(

Peope impact us who don't know us every day. I don't think there's a word for it, but it's only natural that you'd feel a loss.

How did you find out? There ought to be people who care as well. Even if you don't communicate with them reading their thoughts could help put yours into perspective?

[fortytwoeyes]

The first thing I found was actually a memorial page where people posted comments, so I already got some of that.

[snobantiker]

I think in this day and age it doesn't really matter if you know someone in person. Especially on sites like LJ or Tumblr people we follow impact us with their thoughts and we build some sort of connection, even from afar.

So as the others are saying: What you're feeling is quite normal. I am sorry for your loss :(