When friends expire but their parents don't

I recently read an insightful commentary on how friendships expire. A couple of my friendships have expired recently, or rather

• one had expired quite some time ago, but I had been in serious denial about this for oh, 10-15 years or so and
• one expired in a way akin to the dream deferred methodology so poignantly described by Langston Hughes

Anyway today I got an e-mail from the father of one of these dormant friends (you see, I still haven't fully accepted the principle). I admit to having written him an e-mail first. You see, he has the same profession as my father. And I wrote them both an e-mail attaching a job description for a position at my church, for which both might potentially be expected to know potentially relevant candidates.

Anyway this kind gentleman responded to my e-mail with much enthusiasm and asking, how was I? So I wrote him how I was (very well thank you and a few relevant details), and how was he and how was his lovely wife? To which he responded in appropriate detail and closed the missive with the following:

We'll be with (dormant-friend) over Easter. Why don't you and (Mr. Cat) come to (city of dormant-friend's residence) and join us?

Which of course I / we have no intention of doing. But it leaves me with a funny feeling that friend-dad has such more enthusiastic warm feelings towards me than dormant-friend herself, and doesn't have any clue as to what has transpired between me and her, and of course I'm not the one to tell him (nor do I in fact have to as this can clearly be seen as a sincere but not too serious "why don't you come round for dinner sometime" type of invitation and it's not as if he'll be offended that we don't show up) -- but still and all. Whilst dormant-friend was considered one of my best friends, her parents were like semi-adoptive parents to me. I am still very fond of them, at a distance, and they clearly of me (although admittedly we are both the types to perhaps exaggerate the closeness of friendships, not hypocritically, maybe just a bit naively, or to feel more warmly feely towards people than the actual level of intimacy would properly justify).

But it's like these people are basically out of my life, as a result of events that actually had nothing to do with our relationship to each other but as a result of purely exogenous forces. I guess this is like losing in-laws after a divorce -- there's no real reason I'll ever see these dear people again. Unless, of course, a dormant friendship goes active again. But I've let go of that.

On a technical note, I am struggling with my use of methodology above to describe the expiration. I think there must be a more appropriate, medical term for the process I am trying to evoke. My grasp of and eloquence in the English Language has declined considerably as my fluency in Dutch has increase.