Say I Love You

Write about a time when you didn’t take action but wish you had. What would you do differently?

The last time I talked to my best friend on the phone, when we were saying goodbye, I thought about telling her I loved her but I didn’t. We weren’t in the habit of doing that even though we spent a lot of time together and cared about each other deeply.

I did know she was struggling with depression and had arranged for her to receive a bouquet of flowers that very afternoon letting her know my husband and I were thinking about her with love. She did  receive the flowers after our phone call and thanked me with a text message.

Unfortunately, this particular caring gesture wasn’t enough to make a critical difference. Not long after that, she took her own life at her suburban home. Her husband tried to resuscitate her with CPR when he got home from work but she was already brain dead.

I don’t think anything I could have said or done would have stopped her from suicide if that was her sincere wish. But I will always regret not telling her I loved her on our last phone call.

I am sharing this painful story with you, dear reader, so you will say, “I love you” to someone who deeply matters to you while you still have a chance to do so. Tomorrow may be too late.