In January 2026, I lost my best friend.
We had known each other for 26 years. She fought cancer for eight. That is a long time to fight. A long time to love someone and watch them fight. And a long time to prepare for a farewell you are never ready for.
I am not going to write about the grief itself. It is mine. It is private. And it sits where it sits.
What I want to write about is what happened in those final conversations.
The conversations you never forget
When life shrinks down to a room, a bed, a window – everything insignificant falls away. You could feel it in every conversation we had towards the end. No small talk. No filler. Just what actually mattered.
It was she who pushed me. Repeatedly. With a clarity only someone who knows you inside and out can have.
"Magda. Just do it. Don't wait."
She meant the business. She meant life. She meant that I had waited long enough for the right moment – and that the right moment never comes on its own.
I listened. Finally.
What happened next
Since January, I have:
Started By M Consulting AB – the business I had long wanted to build, on my own terms, with 25 years of experience as the foundation.
Enrolled in my ICC coaching programstarting in August. A certification I had wanted to pursue for years – and am now actually pursuing.
Become a volunteer with Trygga Barnen and function as a support person for a young adult who needs exactly what I can offer: a steady, trusted adult in their life.
Set up my own IT environment to Microsoft business standards. From scratch. By myself.
Built and coded my own website – despite never having written a single line of code two weeks ago.
Not because I suddenly became a different person. But because 'she' reminded me of who I already am.
What she taught me
Loss shifts your perspective in a way nothing else does.
You stop putting things off. You stop waiting for circumstances to improve. You stop apologizing for taking up space.
I do not want to wait. I want to live now. Fully.
That is not a quote from an inspirational poster. It is an instruction from my best friend, delivered from a hospital bed, with a smile I can still see clearly.
Why am I writing this here?
Because this is a professional forum, and we talk far too rarely about what actually shapes us.
Not just qualifications, titles, and career steps. But the real events. The ones that reshape how we see time, courage, and what actually matters.
I am a recruiter. An organizational consultant. A senior HR advisor. That is true.
But I am also someone who lost her best friend and chose to let that make her more alive, not less.
She would have liked that.
//M
