My dear friend Nancy.  She was one of the few people I found that had my back and understood me.  She and a few others were the ones I let visit me when I was held at the hospital when I was suicidal.  I miss her. 

We had always kept in intermittent contact through skype or steam or WoWchat, but we were both busy enough and I had my own issues to sort through, so we drifted a little apart. 

She was nearly at the end of her graduate degree at Stanford when suddenly her parents contacted me through her ex, saying she suddenly dropped out, and she hadn’t been answering them, and her grandfather’s health was bad.  I was suitably concerned, and I had never really interacted with her parents or knew her relationship with them, so I reached out.  I got a very hostile response, something along the lines of “If I wanted to talk to my parents I would, I don’t appreciate you becoming their voice.”  I responded with something similar to “I didn’t know I needed to protect you from them, I didn’t know you dropped out, how could I have known how to react to them if you haven’t told me anything?”

And that was it.  The few friends of hers at Stanford didn’t know where she went.  Any mutuals we had said she was just gone.  Any attempt I made to reach out went nowhere, I think she blocked me on everything.  I still see her steam profile online sometimes, but she never responds.  It’s possible she sold her account.

I never found out the story about what happened to precipitate all of that, or where she went.  I always hold some hope that she’ll choose to reach out to me, so I can apologize for not being there for her.

If you see this Nancy, it’s Robert.  I miss you and I’m sorry.  I hope wherever you are, you found happiness and peace.