Seeing is believing?

This morning I ran into a buddy of my previous workplace. After a brief exchange of etiquette words, he mentioned to me two former colleagues of ours. The first one, a nice guy, has been doing excellent.  He had once left the institution for a short while, and he returned and is now getting more and more successful in an important new role. Good for him, we are really pleased with this guy's big good luck.

The other one was a problem, who has been fatally ill for a couple of years, and just narrowly escaped a death recently. I was certain that my buddy did not feel any sorry talking about this guy of bad fortune. I had the memory they two, both natives, had been in a very close association. They were seen chatting fondly in the hallway, much more frequently than with others, including the first colleague mentioned.

This put me in puzzle and wonder. Was I living under a rock?