Virtually over

I only know Natalie (not her real name) in cyber-time.

She contacted me via Facebook last year, asking me if I wanted to join a Facebook group of people who had the same (last) name.

I know she has two boys and is somewhere in her thirties. I know she lived in France, and that her husband commuted to England for worker as a banker.

I know she had a child this year who lived only a short time -- and that the priest was not nice to her, the grieving mother.

We've chatted, shards of girl talk, sympathy, encouragement -- but I know less of Natalie than one Second Life avatar knows about another.

A few days ago, she posted the cold fact: Natalie and Richard (not his real name) have ended their relationship.

She changed her status to single.

And now we wrestle with a question of etiquette; how do you announce a seperation or divorce on Facebook?

Maybe this was the only way to do it. But it still seems strange to read about the end of someone's marriage in a world where love, and heartbreak, are as close or as far away as a keyboard.