Lending Friends Money

"If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it."- anonymous


When I read this tonight I started to laugh.  Has this ever happen to you?  Have you lent money and it ruined your friendship?

When I was 21 I lent one of my best friends $200 because she and her husband needed to repair their car.  Well they repaired their car and drove to New York and I never saw her again.  I talked to her once in Rochester but I never heard from her again.  When ever I hear about Rochester, NY.  I think of my friend Jenny and wonder how she is doing.  What I should be doing is forgetting we were ever friends because she never paid me back and blew me off.  We had been friends since I was in 11th and she was in 12th.  We met in choir and were inseparable till she moved away with her husband.  We went to Santa Monica High's football games.  Share my first officially legal drink when I turned 21.  I even stood up with her at her wedding.  I even named my first car a red 1975 Mustang II (the lousy mustang for you car buffs) after Jenny because her last name was Cherry.   What a fanciful person I was.

This looked a lot like my old mustang.

It was that same fanciful person that believed in her friend even though she knew that her friend was a "bad" girl.  I knew she was a "bad" girl which made her more fun.  I was the goody two shoes to her badness.  What a pair!  I was 21 when she moved away and  my faith in humanity was tarnished.  I was raised to be very practical but I was naive.  I still am at times.  I don't see myself as naive, I see myself as someone that still has faith and thinks the best, till I'm shown the worst.  Now I don't loan anyone more than $40 because it won't devastate me to loose it forever.  The reality is we shouldn't give more than we can afford to loose.


At this time of year we are suppose to be more generous and I still try to do that.  I often wish I had more to give.  I know that if I was able to afford it I'd have tons of animals and live in the country so they would have a place to run around.  

Have you given money and then ended up loosing your friend?  Are you still generous but more cautious or did you turn into Scrooge?