I feel guilty for being so busy in the past couple of years and not keeping in touch with some of my closest college friends. This guilty feeling was sparked by my recent encounter with Mel, one of my best buddies in college. We parted ways after college with the promise of keeping in touch and trying to see each other regularly. Admittedly, I’m the one who didn’t keep my part of the promise because I allowed my work to occupy most of my waking hours for the past years.

I bumped into Mel at the hospital last week and we decided to meet later for dinner to catch up on each other’s life. It seemed to me that we were destined to meet that day because had I not agreed to take the errand of bringing flowers to a sick client at that hospital that day, I wouldn’t have met Mel. Besides, it seemed so timely that I decided to go after lunch when I could’ve gone in the morning as my officemate suggested. I also had the option of just having the flower delivered, but I had this gut feel that a personal visit would be more appropriate.

Anyway, as I said, it seemed that I was really fated to bump into Mel that day because I crossed the lobby and took the elevator just as she got in the same elevator on her way to her gynecologist. You can just imagine how surprised we were to be standing next to each other in the crowded elevator. It was all we could do to keep from squealing in delight and dropping everything we were holding to hug each other. It had been years since we last saw each other and it’s a surprise that we still recognized one another easily.

After we alighted from the elevator, we spent a few minutes chatting with each other, trying to squeeze in as much details about our lives in the little time we had to talk because she had to catch an appointment with her gynecologist. We agreed that we really needed time to sit down and talk more freely in a more chat-conducive setting, so we decided to meet later for dinner at a nearby restaurant.

It was during that dinner later that I felt bad about not keeping in touch with her through all those years after college. I could’ve been there for her when she really needed a friend at that time. She disclosed to me that she just got out of a depression treatment center because she needed professional help when she sank into a severe case of depression following her miscarriage.

I felt really sorry for her as she relayed to me the misery she endured when her boyfriend left her after he got her pregnant. She said she didn’t want to keep the baby at first since it only reminded her of the jerk who made her believe that he loved her as much as she loved him. She resorted to excessive drinking to escape her woes and she didn’t care even if she lost her job due to her alcohol problem.

However, she said that she got to her senses one day and realized that she had developed a bond with the baby growing inside her. But just as she decided to turn her back on her alcohol drinking and live the right path for the sake of the baby she knew she had grown to love, she had a miscarriage.

That was the lowest point of her life. She had lost the only thing that she knew would give meaning to her life. She was ready to change for the better for her baby. When she lost her baby, she also lost the will to live. So severe was her depression that she attempted to end her life twice. That was when she was admitted in the depression treatment center.

Mel feels better now but she admits that she still can’t help feeling sad whenever she looks back on what had happened to her and how she lost the baby she was so looking forward to having. I also feel sad for her, but I’m also glad that she seemed to have come to terms with her depression problem.

Filed under: Depression

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