When I arrived at college with my parents for my first semester living in a dorm, my roommate was already moved in. The first thing my mother notice was how he kind of put the bed behind a desk and she commented, “what, are they a hermit?” Turns out, kinda were. They’d had a tough upbringing and had tendency to withdrawal, so we were perfect for each other.

At one point I took a job at the dorm minding the front door. After some drunken azzholes attacked me because I wouldn’t let them in without ID, my roommate was one of the few that stood by me, even showed up to support me at the hearing. The school was next to useless with this situation, so I had the azzholes arrested. Later we moved off campus with some other friends to an apartment (dump). (I decided to move out of the dorm after a group in the room across from me was arguing over their D&D character strengths until 5 in the morning.) Once we moved in he was beginning to have some issues which should have alerted us since all the utility bills were in his name and we gave him our share of the bill every month. When we came back after Christmas break he was gone and we had no heat or electric because he had pocketed our money and skipped town. We later found out they went to Florida. Later that semester he showed up at our door; all apologetic about taking our money and skipping town, but there was no offer to pay back our money. He had apparently been kicked out of where ever he had run off to in Florida and were now homeless and thought we might let them crash with us. They were right, but this was the first instance of a pattern I saw in their later life. Once I graduated from school I would hear from mutual friends that he had been booted from yet another place because of their drinking/drug use and the habit of stealing to support it, until finally everyone had lost contact with him. Last I heard of them they were up in the New England area. So the theories I’ve been going by basically revolve around that they are now truly a hermit or dead. Maybe someday I’ll find out, but I’m not holding my breath. When I heard about the Hermit of Maine, I thought maybe, nope, wasn’t him.

Had another college friend (yes I had more than one) and former roommate that have also disappeared. I remained in contact with her for decades after college though she was very often hard to get ahold of. They came to my wedding and several of my children’s milestone events. Even house sat for me when I went to Alaska. After college she worked for way to many years in an ice cream shop before deciding to go back to school to get a masters. They were eventually working as a TA at a college when one day I realized they were disconnected from life. Their phones were all shut off, they did not respond to emails I sent and the mail was returned from their apartment with no forwarding. She had just disappeared? They never married or had kids and lived a reclusive life. I believe she was still involved with someone they had dated during college and were on and off with them through the years, even though that person was married to another and had a family, but I could never get them to talk about it. I’d be more interested in knowing what has happen to them. Though these 2 people do point to a trend in people I make friends with. But then we all have had friends in the past who’s where bout’s are unknown to us today, you just lose touch. But then I think these two individuals are now on another plain of existence.