I can sympathise a lot with the sentiments expressed by OP, though my bad experiences sound trivial compared with those here.
I learned about expat's daughter yesterday, though it was through someone I know totally outside mumsnet, I realised it was someone on mn because of our mutual friends, didn't know who, I'm so so sorry.
My boss from 2006-2011 is dying of cancer, he maybe has a few days left. He was the loveliest, brightest man I've ever met, one of the things that is so sad is that the cancer has affected his brain - he knows who I am but what he says no longer makes sense.
I've also lost my job in a rather nasty restructure, but am having to work nearly 4 months from being told - quite a few of us are going including the head of department's PA. While it hasn't happened because of my boss's illness, it hasn't helped - the outcome might have been different if he had been able to return to work as he would have fought to maintain his support and specifically for me. He predicted a few months ago when he still hoped to come back to work that his return would be my best hope - as he's blind and couldn't do his job without the support of a reader/secretary/sighted assistant.
2010 and 2011 were not great either - my mum was diagnosed with cancer twice though she seems to have come through at the moment, and her best friend (who had the sort of role when I was a small child that a godparent might play) died in a house fire.
Although it's not an emotional issue, just infuriating and stressful, a lot of things have broken down in my house, two of them twice - the fridge has lasted 3 months after being repaired under guarantee, a computer lasted 4 days and I still have to chase PC World on a promise to pay the repair bill.
Let's hope that the end of this year/next year brings better for everyone.