It is impossible to understand if you haven’t experienced it yourself.
Going through something tough definitely makes someone a more compassionate person.
I’ve been ill for over four years. My friends have been kind to me and certainly haven’t forgotten me but they can’t understand and I don’t expect them to. Years ago, I worked beside a lovely guy whose mum was suffering from Alzheimer’s. I regularly asked how she was but I didn’t fully understand until my own mum got Alzheimer’s some years later. I went into shock when I realised just what my colleague was going through before his own mum passed away. I felt like I had been asking him how his mum was all those years like she had a flu or something. He’s a lovely guy and I think he appreciated that I was even thinking about her. People, even if they want to understand, really can’t. Sometimes, this can seem hurtful, but at the end of the day, they just feel helpless and genuinely don’t know what to say. It’s frustrating for both parties but no harm is really meant. And if you lose friends along the way, as I have, well, were they ever really true friends in the first place? ~ Kathryn Casey
Walk a mile in someone’s occasions before you think you can judge them. You never know what they have been through.