This friend is perhaps like one of my touchstones in life history....she and I have similar family backgrounds, similar upbringing, same ethnicity (which growing up in German-based city in the 1960's-1970's where there were very few Asians, means something in terms of shared experiences), she also is from a family predominantly sisters with 1 brother, same for me.

Dropping someone like that from my life when she and I have a good friendship (even though it skims the surface at times) and many unspoken understandings/intuitive shared experiences, may not be the best.

Yes, I do accept for what it is. After all, being good friends for a very long time, means not asking the person to be any different from their core goodness. As time marches on, this becomes more and more important.