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A friend of this blog , and someone some of you know ( virtually ) died recently . I only received word recently and found it hard to believe . I was going to post this several days ago , but there was a contretemps on the blog and I did n't want to get that confused with this . Now that such issues are largely over , I feel able to post .

Why is it so hard to believe that someone died ?
Pick your answer from: -- They were very close to them .. -- They were sick for a long time .. -- It was sudden .. -- It was long and painful ..
It was sudden .