re: What was the worst news you ever had to break to someone?

My wife works in one of the big NICUs up here in NWA. She has told me on more than one occasion that the wailing of a mom being told her baby is gone is a sound you will never get out of your head.

That they were being let go from their job. Luckily that was the worst I’ve ever had to tell, and that was bad enough. I feel bad for those posters who had to give the worst news.

Fired 5 people in a row… not fun.

Damn dude. Now I know why your user name is MakersMark.

Had to track my mother and father down while they were vacationing in Europe to let them know my sister died unexpectedly. Took about a half a day to reach them via phone at a hotel. Sucked.

Fired an entire staff. 20 people.

Worst was waiting at the gate in Tampa, to pick my brothers up to see Dad, who was dying of cancer. As the plane was pulling into the gate, I received a call, informing me that Dad had just passed while I was waiting. Long silent drive to Largo across the Howard Franklin bridge.

I had to tell my 6 year old daughter that her mother passed away in an auto accident.

quote:

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kind of glad that's in the rearview mirror for me, big time for the young'n's though, good luck

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The worst is over. Colleges chosen, Prom done, school travel complete.

What haunts me the most isn’t what I have told. But what I didn’t.


I didn’t tell them how well she hid it, how long she was suffering before her suicide.

It just felt wrong. I did know. And obviously didn’t do enough. It’s just wrong to try to share that guilt.

But it still involves hiding understanding from them. Spares them from some blame at the cost of never understanding.

There was a time I came close to throttling someone who knew little about her for degenerating her loudly.