Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

My friend told me yesterday she'd seen the obituary of a mutual friend in the paper.  She pulled over and I read it.  This woman used to be very important in my life for many years.  Then she moved away from her friends here and tried to forget her own problems by plunging herself into work.  I had been supportive for many years, and when I needed support, I called her and she told me she just didn't have it in her to be there for me.  I was devastated.  But her family problems were horrendous and sometimes we can't muster the will to do what we ought.  I gradually came to the realization that her wounds were deep and I could not help her in any way or she me.  But I heard how she was doing from time to time and my husband and I ran into her husband last year and "caught up".  He said she was in a walker and not doing well.  She was three years younger than me.  Her diabetes was torturing her.  He did not say where they'd moved or encourage any communication, so we were left with a bittersweet feeling of what we'd been to each other and now no longer were.  I'll go to the memorial service, and try to appreciate the years we were friends, and I bring away the lesson of not being able to "fix" anything except myself.  She deserved a better life than she had, it was unfair what she went through, and I couldn't change a thing.