The “real thing” is just as imaginary as the imaginary thing.
The “imaginary” thing is just as real as the real thing.
When someone is not in the room with me and I can see them in my mind’s eye, or hear them in my mind’s ears, it’s exactly the same as when I see and hear them right in front of me.
Every experience has to go through my mind in order to be experienced. That’s where all experiences are formed.
Which means that everything I experience as “real” is, in the end, imagined.
So there is no difference between real and imagined experiences. There is no difference between the experience of real and imagined people. There is no difference between the experience of real and imagined things.
No one dies, no one is gone, nothing can be taken from me - from my peace to my possessions to my health - that I don’t part with in my mind.