I realise this may sound a bit pathetic

Goodness.... go for it, life is too short to look back and think ...I wish I had done this or that. I meet up with old friends from when I was 11 every year. We don't have a great deal in common but I enjoy the day listening and eating.
I met up with another old friend who contacted me through FB. She lived on the other side of the world and when she came back to the UK for a visit, we arranged to meet. It wasn't a unrivalled success and we probably won't meet again but I can see why I was friendly with her.
Our regard for one another wasn't strong enough for us to spend much time with one another again. However, I am glad that I facilitated meeting and we are still friends. FB friends. Not the same as RL.
I met up with another group recently and had a lovely time as I was much closer to them....they then all travelled back to their respective homes. We will speak a few times a year.

Moving about through work has meant leaving lovely friends and I feel sad about that...but I do make the effort to keep in touch...so I have a wide circle of friends. We are off to Canada in May to see old school and Uni friends.....impossible if you don't take a risk and maintain contact.

Just try and connect to her, she will ignore it if she doesn’t want contact. However, she may be feeling the same as you. Life’s too short for worrying about rebuffs.

I hope you're inspired to reach out. Suck it and see as they say!
I fell out with a good friend for several years and felt the relationship would never be mended. I saw her one day in a supermarket, several years down the line, she had had children, and i decided life was too short. I wasn't confident she would be willing to reciprocate but i was very happy she did.
We did discuss the reason for the falling out, it was complicated but we had both grown up some and had a better understanding of life I think.
Good luck petitpois

Something similar happened to me. I did contact my ex friend via Facebook, and she sent me a text. We spent a long happy hour on the phone and had agreed to meet up.

The meet up never happened as she didn't contact me again, despite my messages (that was a year ago).

I have since decided it's for the best, too much time has passed and I believe we are now different people to the wonderful times we spent when we were both single and carefree. (I am married, she is still single).

By all means try if you feel you want to, but don't have any expectations. x

OP I recently 'found' a friend I'd not been in touch with for almost 50 years by a casual online search. I hesitated to contact her thinking 'our lives have followed such different courses, she may not welcome hearing from me'. But she did, she is as pleased as I am to be back in touch. We've much catching up to do, reminiscing about times past and are hoping to meet again soon. Go for it!

Go for it, you are both older and wiser now. At least you will be able to move on if she rebuffs you but you may find she has been thinking positively about you too.

Many years ago there were silly arguments among a group of my friends and, as happens, sides were taken and the group drifted and went separate ways. I never really felt like I'd fallen out with anyone just that we were finding our feet and confidence in different areas and needed to grow in that way. Well I did think about the girls I didn't see and knew I would make contact at sometime, certainly with one of my best friends from that time, I just needed to get round to it. Well one Christmas I received a card from her with a note in. I did laugh! The old camaraderie, humour and funny stories were there immediately. The card was from her and her then 10 year old daughter who I knew about but had never met.

We are now more than 15 years down the line past that card, still give Christmas cards & presents, birthdays cards and presents and am proud to say she is still one of my best friends and we meet up regularly. I also see the other girls now too and there is not an ounce of animosity among any of us.

Here's to friendship

Go for it, petitpois. I did it several years ago and now several of us old school friends meet up now and again for a long lunch - in fact we were able to welcome one of our peers when she was visiting the UK from New Zealand in the summer to a gathering. We've all followed quite different paths but seem to be essentially the same people we were 50+ years ago, and it's so interesting (and fun) hearing about their experiences. A Fb catch-up will ease you in and will help you decide if you want to rekindle the relationship and meet up.

As it's clearly what you want to do - just do it. If she doesn't respond you're no worse off than now and if you renew the friendship that's good.

Don't overthink it. If she does ignore it, it won't mean anything. Maybe she is just too busy or doesn't like to look back. If she rebuffs you then it is unfortunate but if she does it unkindly that will reflect on her not you.
You may get in touch and then remember why you didn't keep in touch and be the one doing the rebuffing! You really have nothing to lose and may, at the least, gain a nice chat and catch up.

I have reconnected with 2 people on FB and really enjoy our friendships. I did try to connect with a third one, but then found out she is married to someone who used to pursue me... oops... I never reciprocated with him. Hey ho 2/3 is good. You've nothing to lose and everything to gain. Go for it and see what happens, you have everything to gain. Good luck.

I too had a similar situation, fell out with a friend and lost touch. Then out of the blue I seen a request from her on FB - I accepted and it was like we had never fallen out. Years later she told me that she pondered for weeks about sending the request through fear of me not accepting and admitted that she was so pleased she did.

Life is too short (as I have sadly found out recently) make that friends request and hopefully it will open out that once great friendship you both shared. Good luck x

Tegan2 that is exactly what happened to me. It was the laughs I remembered most. She said to me 'you have had an interesting life, Ive only been married' I replied 'I had to fight for survival' by that my husband left me when the children were 7 and 5 and the house had been gutted to be renovated. Needless to say in the middle of it he left. So with a house to put back together again and had to go on benefits, I went and got myself educated. I was never going to be reliant on a man again and that was over thirty years ago.

Do go for it, I have got back in touch with someone from 45 years ago, we meet once a year and exchange occasional emails, we have our families in common but a day together works well. Take plenty of photos with you as it gets the conversation going.

Years ago I met up with a group from College and that didn't go so well, one lady had married into a lot of money and was determined we should all know it, another had a very sad life and we all felt very down for her, so another meeting never happened.

Give it a try,you have nothing to lose.An old childhood friend contacted me and although we haven't yet had a meet up,we have a "close" online friendship (not FB),exchanging lots of family news,photos and memories of the old days.

Do go for it, petitpois. If you suggest a meet and she doesn't respond then, so be it. She may, like you, have forgotten what your parting of the ways was all about. If you meet and do a reasonable catch up it may turn out to be a reinvigorated friendship or a 'see you around' outcome. Nothing to lose and possibly much to gain methinks. Good luck.

I have a brother and sister 1 year younger than me. I was 70 last summer and they were 70 this summer. My brother lives in Canada and sister lives 200 miles away from me. I'm in remission from bowel and liver cancer and doing well altho my initial prognosis was not good. My sister last rang me in Jan (when I was quite low)saying our brother was possibly coming over to celebrate their birthday. I was overjoyed and said we could have a proper joint celebration. She said she'd ring me each fortnight. That was the last I heard from her. In May I tried to get in touch but no reply. I then saw on my brothers FB page that that the four were on holiday in Croatia. I hadn't even known that brother was this side of the Atlantic. On their return they didn't contact me or reply to my posts. Sisters daughter then sent an invite for two weeks time which we couldnt attend. I sent cards and presents and then my sister rang (first time since Jan) to thank me for her present. I asked her why I hadn't been kept in the loop abt the arrangements and when my brother was in the country and she got very defensive and said she hadnt told me abt the holiday as I couldn't have afforded it. I said it wasn't abt the holiday but the fact that they kept everything from me and consequently my brother had no time to see me. She then said that I was just his sister and she was his twin which was more important. She then said she was getting very angry with me and hung up. That was June and despite me leaving messages on her phone and emails she hasn't replied. I hate bad feeling. Should I just leave it?

Jennymolly you must be hurt beyond measure I imagine, as I have a similar relationship with my siblings, but it is your own life that you must bend to make you happy, and people who don't want to fit with you are not worth agonising over.

Go for it Petitpois! I was in a similar situation few years ago. Now we are in contact. Not the same as it was before but it's ok. Also have re-connected with long lost childhood friends on Facebook. Its nice. Good luck.

Your friend will probably be delighted to hear from you. I had two dear friends from childhood and kept in touch until we moved away too far to visit. I trained as a teacher and started a new career at the age of forty which took up most of my time, along with grandchildren and caring for my mother. Since I retired 12 years ago I kept thinking I should contact them but it was on the back burner until three years ago when I started to search for them both on the Internet. I was devastated to find out that the youngest of the three of us passed away six years ago. My other friend was not on Facebook and was ex directory but I found her address from 192.com and just sent her a card with my contact details saying I would be pleased to hear from her if she wanted to contact me. As soon as she received the card she phoned me and I arranged to visit her as she was housebound and in very poor health. I visited her regularly and we spent many happy hours together reminiscing, never at any time was there any awkwardness just pleasure in each other’s company once again. Her health deteriorated over the past few months and my visits were to hospital rather than her house. Sadly she passed away at the age of 73 and yesterday I attended her funeral to say a final goodbye. My only regret is that I didn’t act soon enough to reunite with our. other friend.

I too contacted old friends via f/b and friends reunited. So glad I did even though we had lost contact for over 50 years. Might not have as much in common as all though years ago, but lovely to see how they have got on and to see their families etc.

I got in touch with an old friend who I hadn't seen since the seventies. I hoped we could catch up by email but she asked for my phone number straight away. She then started phoning, and just droning on and on, all about her family and her daughter's horrid mother in law. She had zero interest in me. In fact I didn't even get to tell her I had two grown up children. To my shame I didn't reply when she sent me a bunch of photos, and she stopped phoning. Just saying .... people change.

I've been going to my school reunions every 5 years since 1997 (40-year anniversary intake) and each time I'd see a girl who terrified me when we were all there together. She and I were never friends, she was with the cool, confident crowd and I was keen on hiding in corners and not being noticed. But she always seemed quite pleased to see me, and after this year's reunion when we'd had such a good chat, I decided to contact her. We've now had two really super get-togethers where we've talked for hours, and have come to the conclusion that we've missed 60 years of friendship just because my surname began with a "D" and hers with a "W" - the school put us into classrooms according to the alphabet in our first year. But, better late than never and we plan to meet regularly from now on.

Bluebelle, I think you'll find all squids are pretty damp! As for the OP, I agree with everyone who says go for it. Good luck!

Like so many others I would urge to make contact with your old friend. I have done so (mostly with school friends). and I have not regretted doing so even though one or two have not responded. That is their choice and I respect that, but I was pleased that I had tried to renew our association. For the most part the contact has been so rewarding for all of us involved in reconnecting.

Go for it! As the others say the worst that can happen is that she doesn't reply, or that she does, but you later decide you have nothing in common anymore.

I recently decided not to go to a school reunion feeling the journey would be too expensive and that as I had only been at that school for three years the others probably had forgotten me 50 years later.

But I have been pleasantly surprised by how many of my old classmates do remember me and have e-mailed since the first group mail went out.