(no subject)
Life's a bitch and then you die. That was how I started a recent posting.. since then I've learned that maybe life itself isn't a bitch, but the internet sure can be.
For the past year and a half I thought I had a friend. That friend, I thought, went through a very hard time. Lost her parents at a young age and struggled with an illness; multiple sclerosis. She started to lose the use of her arms and legs. As if that wasn't bad enough another illness was added to that, a lethal one this time; lung cancer.
I tried everything to be there for her, to keep her spirits up and be a good friend, to help her through a dark time. Just be there for her every step of the way, until the very end. She deteriorated fast, at least that is what she made me believe when I spoke to her on the phone and she had a hard time breathing. She was on oxygen 24-7 now, so it was safe to say it spiraled down and became very real now. My worries turned into grief. I had a hard time dealing with, what I thought, would be the loss of a friend. In between my life struggles, I felt I had to be strong to be there for her. After all, my problems were nothing compared to what she had to go through. I had to call her friend to bring him the bad news, and trust me, that was one of the hardest things I ever had to do.
Today she was out of touch. For so long, and with her being in the final stage of her terminal illness, suffice to say I was worried sick. I waited for hours and then called the hospital. No one there by that name. I then decided I'd rather be safe than sorry and I called the police, asked them to see if everything was okay. And it wasn't ...
In a different way than I thought, though. Her parents appeared to be very much alive, and very much on vacation. When the police called me back and put her on the phone, I was baffled. The police officer must have noticed my total confusion because he called me again later on and told me she definitely wasn't sick. I called her and confronted her. She kept lying until the end, until I asked her what would happen if I called her brother---whose cellphone number I had found online---and if he would tell me the same thing she did. She had no choice then but to say no and confess she had lied. But she claimed, this was all she lied about.
I was so angry that I simply couldn't talk anymore and hung up the phone, and I'm still angry. Livid. But I took it one step further and after discussing it with another friend, we both felt we needed closure; I called her brother to get more info. He was shocked, of course, but imagine *my* shock to find out that the dying friend I thought I had been guiding all this time wasn't dying or even sick at all. No MS, no cancer, not even a tiny friggin' head cold.
Today I (and many friends all over the world) became one of the internet statistics, victims of a fraud, a fake person who is sick enough to mess with people's heads and hearts. In the worst possible way. She even faked seizures on her trip to the US. We were betrayed in the worst possible way and I can assure you that sucks. I'm not likely to trust anyone online ever again. Today I also lost a friend. I lost her sooner than I thought and not quite how I imagined it to be, but I'm gonna carry on with what I thought would really happen soon.
I'll bury her, the only difference is she will live on.
For the past year and a half I thought I had a friend. That friend, I thought, went through a very hard time. Lost her parents at a young age and struggled with an illness; multiple sclerosis. She started to lose the use of her arms and legs. As if that wasn't bad enough another illness was added to that, a lethal one this time; lung cancer.
I tried everything to be there for her, to keep her spirits up and be a good friend, to help her through a dark time. Just be there for her every step of the way, until the very end. She deteriorated fast, at least that is what she made me believe when I spoke to her on the phone and she had a hard time breathing. She was on oxygen 24-7 now, so it was safe to say it spiraled down and became very real now. My worries turned into grief. I had a hard time dealing with, what I thought, would be the loss of a friend. In between my life struggles, I felt I had to be strong to be there for her. After all, my problems were nothing compared to what she had to go through. I had to call her friend to bring him the bad news, and trust me, that was one of the hardest things I ever had to do.
Today she was out of touch. For so long, and with her being in the final stage of her terminal illness, suffice to say I was worried sick. I waited for hours and then called the hospital. No one there by that name. I then decided I'd rather be safe than sorry and I called the police, asked them to see if everything was okay. And it wasn't ...
In a different way than I thought, though. Her parents appeared to be very much alive, and very much on vacation. When the police called me back and put her on the phone, I was baffled. The police officer must have noticed my total confusion because he called me again later on and told me she definitely wasn't sick. I called her and confronted her. She kept lying until the end, until I asked her what would happen if I called her brother---whose cellphone number I had found online---and if he would tell me the same thing she did. She had no choice then but to say no and confess she had lied. But she claimed, this was all she lied about.
I was so angry that I simply couldn't talk anymore and hung up the phone, and I'm still angry. Livid. But I took it one step further and after discussing it with another friend, we both felt we needed closure; I called her brother to get more info. He was shocked, of course, but imagine *my* shock to find out that the dying friend I thought I had been guiding all this time wasn't dying or even sick at all. No MS, no cancer, not even a tiny friggin' head cold.
Today I (and many friends all over the world) became one of the internet statistics, victims of a fraud, a fake person who is sick enough to mess with people's heads and hearts. In the worst possible way. She even faked seizures on her trip to the US. We were betrayed in the worst possible way and I can assure you that sucks. I'm not likely to trust anyone online ever again. Today I also lost a friend. I lost her sooner than I thought and not quite how I imagined it to be, but I'm gonna carry on with what I thought would really happen soon.
I'll bury her, the only difference is she will live on.