I'm sorry to hear about your friends loss
This life is temporal. And while we're in it, it's all we know.
And the loss of those that go before us can seem like a lifetime.
I believe that we were with the Lord before we were here and we will be with him again when we leave.
And in between he has never left us, but allowed us to walk in different paths to get to know him.
1Jo 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
Hugs