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Ex best friend has cancer and I don't know what to do

30 replies

Friendproblems · 11/10/2018 16:07

Name changed as details outing - but long-term poster; penis beaker, pombears, yoni massage etc.

I had a best friend from the age of 11. We were incredibly close, though she refused to talk to me when I was sent home from work experience sick, as she didn't believe me (I was in bed when she came), but we made up when I invited her to my 16th birthday party.

Then we were pretty much inseparable. She was there for my anorexia, I was there when her premature baby died. Boyfriends, her husband etc, etc.

She used me as an excuse to have an affair (and once offended me doing so when her date stood her up and she went home early, by saying she came to meet a blind date with me, but he found me unattractive)!

The friendship really stuttered, suddenly, 10 years ago, when she suddenly stopped answering the phone to me. I had no idea what I'd done, or what was wrong, but her husband came round one night, and he implored me to go and see her, as she missed me, and we needed to sort it out and couldn't throw away years of friendship - even though I explained I didn't know why she wouldn't talk to me.

I saw her at her job and we became closer again, though never saw each other as much. Then after I'd been seriously attacked ( the perpertrator sent to prison) she just went silent again.

I got married 9 years ago, and was pregnant with my second child (my first was 18 then). I missed her and found her husband on Facebook, I chatted to my friend, she came round to see me, and we became close again.

Then she never had time to meet. I suffered with PND and didn't try to contact her, I confess. I did see her and we spoke and texted sometimes. Then she sent me a message wishing me well, and saying she was living 300 miles away. I was pregnant with my youngest at the time.

I saw her a few times in our town, with her mum (who seemed to think we were still besties and in constant contact), but she seemed very off with me.

My youngest died, and I reached out to her on Facebook - I don't know why, probably because I finally understood the pain she'd gone through herself. She sent back a message damning me for being sentimental about her daughter, saying I'd never been her friend (after 30 years), that I made constant lies that I found funny at her expense and was never there for her.

I was flabbergasted. I must have missed something going on in her life; but no. I saw her mum just after who told me all about my friend and her family (in "you know that so and so?"), so nothing had happened, and her mum still thought we were friends.

I found out from a school friend that she has cancer, and it's pretty serious - she isn't responding to treatment. I felt the urge to look her up on Facebook, but couldn't find her profile (it appeared on my 'people you may know' about two months ago), it still exists via my husband's, so she's blocked me.

I don't know how to feel. I KNOW it's not about me. But I've missed her constantly for years, and hate to think of her being ill.

She has friends on Facebook who bullied her badly at school, but has blocked me?

I genuinely can't think of what happened. She says I didn't contact her for years, but there were messages from us two months before.

Her husband did try to (drunkenly) snog me once when they split, in 2002 (and told her and me that he'd have had me if I'd been willing), but this also happened when we first met at 18, and she married him after this.

We are both 48.

Do I just leave it?

OP posts:
Gizlotsmum · 11/10/2018 16:15

I think you have too. She obviously resents something or feels you haven’t been there. I don’t think you can change that.

Friendproblems · 11/10/2018 16:18

Yes I get that. It's just so frustrating that she couldn't say what it was (she was always very forthright and outspoken), so can't understand why she wouldn't talk to me about it. Thank you.

OP posts:
AngelSlides · 11/10/2018 16:18

It sounds a messy and complicated friendship.
Leave her be x

Missedmoments · 11/10/2018 16:19

Yes, time to let it/ her go. Very sad to hear but I think if she wanted you to know she would have contacted you before now.

LonnyVonnyWilsonFrickett · 11/10/2018 16:20

I think you have to leave it. With the best will in the world, contacting her now would be about your feelings, not hers and she doesn't need that. If she reaches out to you it would be a different story, of course.

Davespecifico · 11/10/2018 16:21

Yes leave it unless she reaches out.

Friendproblems · 11/10/2018 16:28

Thank you all, it confirms what I thought.

@LonnyVonnyWilsonFrickett absolutely I wouldn't contact her, I know that would be terribly selfish, I'm just worried about her (does that make sense), I still care about her, but definitely wouldn't intrude. I hope she's properly supported.

OP posts:
ThunderInMyHeart · 11/10/2018 16:33

Jesus Christ. Yes, leave it. Don't put yourself through it again.

This is like a dating relationship and an OP saying 'should I get back together with him?'...hell, no. You've been burned enough times. Don't go back for more.

Friendproblems · 11/10/2018 19:00

Thunder - I think it's that I'll always wonder why she went cold on me; why we were so very close, then it's like I'm a sworn enemy.

It's so awful to hear such news and not be able to offer support, or show that you care. I'm rambling on here rather than trying to contact her, and won't.

OP posts:
YeTalkShiteHen · 11/10/2018 19:01

OP that must have been a horrible shock for you and it’s totally understandable that you’ve been knocked for six by the news.

As pp have said (and you too) you can’t contact her but I do think it’s important that you have support, because it’s tough for you to hear that and process it. Flowers

Friendproblems · 11/10/2018 19:10

Thanks YeTalkShiteHen x

OP posts:
AtrociousCircumstance · 11/10/2018 19:10

I don’t know.

You don’t have to contact her and shouldn’t feel any compunction to do so. She sounds a nightmare. But - it sounds like she’s going to die soon. If you want to send a message saying something like ‘I don’t expect you to reply but just wanted to say I’m thinking of you’ then do it.

YeTalkShiteHen · 11/10/2018 19:15

Friendproblems no problem. I really do think it’s important that you take the time to process the news and grieve for your friendship and also (when the time comes) for your friend.

She stopped being your friend, you never stopped being hers. That’s the difference.

Havaina · 11/10/2018 19:19

It sounds like you are her scapegoat, OP.

I'm not sure what there is to miss after 10 years?

I look back fondly on childhood friendships but I don't miss the ones that didn't make it into the present. Some friendships run their course, people get what they need from someone and they move on.

ThunderInMyHeart · 11/10/2018 19:24

OP, I’d wager that even she doesn’t know why she goes hot and cold. Don’t waste time trying to psychoanalyse someone else’s circus/monkeys.

Look after yourself.

NeopreneMermaid · 11/10/2018 19:28

I had a friend like this. She even admitted to a mutual friend that she'd been in a strip with me for two years for no reason.

She got in touch again after another few years and suggested we meet up. I kept her at arm's length and just said I didn't have a free weekend for a couple of months; meanwhile, I wondered what she wanted. Sure enough, she was working on something and was after a professional service related to it that I do for a living. She expected it as a favour. I went back to her and gave her my usual day rate and the mates' rate I'd charge her and never heard from her again. That was a year ago. I miss our good times but not what she has become.

I think you need to separate the person she was from the person she is now.

CantSleepClownsWillEatMe · 11/10/2018 19:31

Leave it. You haven't been friends (frenemies?) for a very long time and without meaning to sound critical, making contact now would be about you and your feelings and little to do with her and her current needs.

You found out about her cancer through the grapevine. If she or her partner or her family felt that contact would benefit her then I imagine they would have made efforts to get in touch with you.

My best friend has had cancer twice and one thing she was very definite about was not wanting people she was no longer in contact with to be told or start contacting her. That included a sister she had fallen out with and no longer saw. Her reasons were 1. that she would find it very false for people who didn't usually bother with her (or had in her opinion treated her badly), to suddenly start the "thinking of you hun" messages and cards and 2. she wanted to focus all her energy on herself and immediate family, not have to manage the awkwardness of other people's feelings.

It's understandable that you feel sad and that you're thinking of her. Your feelings are perfectly valid but that doesn't mean you need to get in touch where it's likely not wanted.

Abelard40 · 11/10/2018 20:02

The only thought I had was is it brain cancer? Because that does weird psychological stuff to your interactions with others..

Friendproblems · 11/10/2018 20:20

Thank you for the comments. No it's definitely not brain cancer (though another friend died of that), it's a very (sadly) common cancer for women, breast cancer.

Yep I know it would be about my feelings, and I certainly don't want that. I'm just stunned that news affected me, and that I still cared for her. Shame she will never know.

Atrocious - I really don't think that it would be appropriate, as everyone else has said, it would be about me, not her. She very recently blocked me on Facebook, so it's blindingly obvious she doesn't want me in touch, and I can't contact her husband or dc, as it'd be like that 'ex-friend' on the other thread.

OP posts:
tectonicplates · 11/10/2018 21:14

Do you have any other mutual friends you could ask if they know why she blocked you?

springydaff · 11/10/2018 22:07

I don't get this tbh.

I've had this common cancer and I would have valued old friends turning up saying they cared - showing they cared.

No friendship is perfect - and it sounds like she's been a pita tbf. But she's very very poorly and you love her. Let her know.

I truly can't see that's about you? You want her to know you care about her - bcs you love her ffs. Ime I needed all the love in all the world when I was going through it.

I wonder if posters are saying 'dont intrude' in the same way people keep away when one is bereaved - JUST when you need people to step up. I think people keep away, and suggest you keep away, bcs they're afraid of it.

Don't be afraid of it - her cancer and her potential death. Show her you care. She may put you through it. My pita friend has just died of cancer (the cancer we both had but it killed her) and even though she was a nightmare sometimes (and we fell out along the way tho were well reconciled at the end) I'm so glad I knew her and could call her my friend. I'm so glad I had those last months with her.

Friendproblems · 12/10/2018 12:39

tecton - not really. The mutual friends we do have are neither close to her or me, so I don't think she'd confide in them. I noticed she'd removed the mutuals who we were both really close with.

@springydaff Flowers I am so sorry you've endured this, and for the loss of your friend.

Thank you for sharing your experience. I don't think, realistically, I can contact her. I appreciate your view, and I maybe would've contacted her, but she's blocked me. We weren't friends on Facebook, so she had to actively go onto my profile and press block; this was recent. I don't, therefore, think she would want contact from me, seeing as she has put a barrier in the way of doing so, if I wanted to.

I could find her husband I suppose, but he uses nicknames prone to changes, and we have no mutuals. I won't contact her through my husband's account (assuming she hasn't blocked him too now), as that seems almost stalkerish/harassing.

She made it perfectly clear that she doesn't want me in her life - recently - when she pressed block.

Yes I care for her, but I don't know how to hand out an olive branch, if the olive tree has been cut down Sad

One important thing I never mentioned before is she did move 300 miles within the last 4 years, so I will never see her around, nor are any of her family local.

OP posts:
TeaByTheSeaside · 12/10/2018 17:38

I think in your position I would send her a card saying you heard that she was ill and how sorry you are. Say how much you miss her and valued your friendship (if that's the case) and that you're thinking of her. And if she needs support you're there for her and give her your phone number / email address. Then the ball's in her court.

But if you don't feel comfortable doing that, then leave her be.

springydaff · 13/10/2018 01:07

Or just send her a card - so sorry to hear you're ill, wishing you the very best, thinking of you, love -

She knows where you are if she wants to get in touch.

EnidButton · 13/10/2018 01:34

She stopped being your friend, you never stopped being hers.

Ouch! So accurate that it made me wince.

This is so often true in these situations. A friend 'dumping' you can feel worse than a boyfriend/girlfriend doing it. It's very hurtful and confusing.

I think you have to leave it really. Especially if you think she's gone out of her way to block you.