Snarkattack

I can claim though, at this time that I was very unwell. And to make sure I got extra value for money, other nastiness intervened. My friend sent me a card at the beginning of that year to say goodbye to me (he died of cancer) and had the nerve to tell me I was not to speak of it to anyone else. By the time he passed away, I tried to deal with it by talking to my ex-boyfriend, who was Japanese and knew him. Cultures were not in harmony; the Japanese grieve differently and I found myself alone on that front too. In the meantime, my health deteriorated. I cried nearly everyday and desperately wished for life to end. I begged my parents to hospitalise me. They wouldn’t. Apparently, they would have me suffer more rather than confront certain truths about just how sick their daughter was.

It was close to hell (at the time it was; I didn’t think things could get worse, but it happened).

Towards the end of that year, things slowly improved. I met another fellow and despite being quite sick of romantic attachments, decided to give him a chance. He came with his own bucket of problems (which is fine, I like people with problems. ‘Balanced’ people sometimes put me ill-at-ease) and the first year of our so-called relationship was on, off, on, off - you get the idea. Then at the beginning of this year, something changed. Coincidentally, my mental health showed signs of stabilising, as did his affections. For most of the year, an almost normal, functional relationship was happening. I was starting to think things were going well.