When my husband, a social butterfly who seemed to know EVERYONE, got sick in 1998, he suddenly had only 3 or 4 friends who stuck by him. And everyone of them were sick or disabled. The same has been true for me, all of my friends except 1 are disabled or sick, and have stuck with me for nearly a couple decades.
As for drinking buddies, my helper has a saying, people you meet in bars, stay in bars...