Is it a bad idea to show compassion to an old friend who lost a loved one?

[Castro]

I heard through the grapevine today that an old friend of mine lost his father to cancer which went undiagnosed. My old friend is a year older than I. I am 22 and we used to be neighbors and best friends from ages four to nine, we also did a lot of things with his dad, he would take us places, we have a lot of memories. My friend has lived out of the area since then, but I still have him as a friend on facebook (I hardly ever used facebook) I was thinking of at least sending him a facebook message, but I'm not sure if that might do more harm than good. after all, I have not been in his life for over 13 years now. I'm also not too sure what to say.