Ok Eric - You are a very kind and sensitive man with great feet. What other wonderful traits are you going to surprise us with?

I'm so sorry to hear about both of these young women. I say both because one suffered with her cancer and passed away and the other for watching her friend go through this and being left behind to deal with the grief. At 20, we think of ourselves as invincible and immortal, in a sense, and when death happens at a young age, it effects those left behind. It is much harder for a 20 year old to accept death than a 50 year old. DD23 had a friend pass away when he was 19 and she was 20. He got influenza and never recovered. It was so sad and DD took it really hard as did all of her friends. She was at the hospital when he passed away. I saw the difference in how death effected these young kids and how it effected older people. It appeared much more difficult for the younger ones.

There isn't much that you could have said to the young woman. Sometimes just listening is the best that you could have done for her and it sounds like you did just that. And, the next time you go in to Arby's you can ask her how she's doing and just listen.

Lastly, excellent post Debbie! She is right! Don't discount what you are going through. MS is a tough battle sometimes and it's a life long battle. There's good days and bad days. Everyone ends up with something and we each learn to endure our suffering, and sometimes, we learn to embrace it. And, as Debbie said, we all have a cross to carry in this journey of life and it's those that help us carry the cross that make the journey that much better.