Friendships that took a hit during COVID need rekindling

Dear Abby

DEAR ABBY: I’m a woman in my late 40s, and since coming out of the isolation of the pandemic (the lockdown was strict where we live), I’ve had a hard time rekindling the friendships I valued before – with my two best girlfriends, in particular. We used to have the type of relationship in which we were very open. We told each other everything and had a lot of fun.

The last two years were really hard on me. I faced a series of serious health issues, as did my youngest kid, who almost died and had to be hospitalized in another city because the care centers here were overcrowded. A few months later, my older child had a mental health crisis that we now spend a lot of time working through.