Facebook Messenger may be a great way for finding old friends and acquaintances and keeping in touch but can you trust it? With surprise I opened the Messenger app this morning to find that one of my new friend requests was from an old girlfriend of my brother Henry. Being rather dubious I clicked on the photo icon for a closer look and, sure enough, it was the same Janice to whom I was introduced several years ago.

“It can’t be…” I said to Chris who was having coffee with me on the terrace, “I have a friend request from Janice.”

“Janice?” Chris had never met her.

“Yes, Henry’s ex-girlfriend. They went out for a few months but it didn’t work out even though she was a really nice lady. Sadly, later she became ill and died of cancer about four years ago,” I explained.

“Terrible,” agreed Chris.

“Someone must have stolen her identity,” I suggested.

“Or perhaps she’s in Internet purgatory, desperately trying to get in touch with friends on Facebook!” my husband quipped.

It puts a new twist on Facebook being regarded as a good medium!