What is your worst memory?

What is the absolute worst thing you can remember that you are able and wiling to share?

Was it eating a food you disliked?
Being jilted by a lover?
Going to the dentist?
Speaking in public?
Getting in trouble at school, at home or at work?
Being hungry?
Being too hot?
Beiing too cold?
Being told you had a disease or condition?
Having a disease or a condition and being told you were just fine?
Hearing bad news about your children or grandchildren?

How did you cope with it?

Without doubt, a major blow-up argument with my brother, instigated by my mother when I was 50. How did I cope? I went into therapy for 2 years. That was the best thing I ever did for myself.

Ann

My worst memory is when I received a phone call from my husband to say that a group of five-year-old children had been shot at by a madman in Dunblane. My eyes are full of tears as I type.

My saddest day was seeing my brother being lowered into his grave with his five-year-old daughter and eight-year-old son standing by the graveside.

What is your worst memory?

Actually it's ALL going bad.

Too many to recount here!

Too many to begin listing. All came in Normandy and the campaigns that followed in 1944-45. Many more in later years that were far from pleasant, but none that could equal those.

A child molestor attacked our nine year-old child in broad daylight in a store.

I went totally insane and rermain that way. I am very opposed to child molestors.

Can't and do not want to go there.

I can think of many, but will choose this one that I told my granddaughter about last Sunday.

Megan was due to be born the middle of February. Nov. 1st my son called and said his wife had gone into labor. I was alone. My children were all gone. My husband was working. Every 20 minutes my son called. "She's in an ambulance being taken to Wilmington and I'm following," and finally, that he had just seen his very, very tiny baby girl. I was awake all night and finally about 5 in the morning I called my oldest daughter.

Megan is now 18, with a poem in Forever Friends. She is visually impaired and sometimes life is difficult, but she deserves to be in this world and was cared for by miraculous medical professionals.

About ten years ago we were out to dinner with Megan, her brother and her father. Her father told the story about Megan's birth and said "It was a nightmare."

His son, Kevin, asked, "Whose nightmare was it?"

"All of ours Kevin. All of ours. But it worked out quite well!"

Love, Carol

My worst memory was when I decided to end it all. It was an event that changed my life.

Hi Abe,
I'm intrigued by your decision to end it all. I hate to sound nosey but could you...?

My recent worst memory was the afternoon of January 25 2007 when my son passed away, just 6 weeks after an extremely premature birth.

Ahad,
that is explained in the chapter title, "End of the Line," in my book. Writing about it helped.

I, too, have many bad memories. For me to survive and be the strong and independent person I am today, I've had to push those memories aside, learn from my mistakes, change what I was capable of changing and not look back.

Like Marie, I have many more good times to think about than bad times. And for that, I'm truly grateful.

A Ahad wrote:

Hi Abe,
I'm intrigued by your decision to end it all. I hate to sound nosey but could you...?

My recent worst memory was the afternoon of January 25 2007 when my son passed away, just 6 weeks after an extremely premature birth.

Ahad,

The anniversary approaches and I am so sorry. Refresh my memory was there a surviving twin?

How is she doing?

Anything that affects our children adversely is very difficult to deal with.

Abdul, Losing a child is one of the absolutely worst things that can happen to a parent.

Alice, Having your child abused is right up there with the worst of the worst.

My heart goes out to both of you for having to experience these horrible pains.

For me one of the worst was the death of my long time friend (since 1st grade) when we were sophomores in college. Her crazy steroid-injecting fiance, in a jealous rage, walked into her home (she was still living with her mom & brother in the house in our neighborhood. Two houses behind mine) stabbed her brother, shot and killed her mother in the hallway. The brother managed to crawl to the neighbors who called the police. My friend was dragged into the bathroom and shot 7 times. The crazy fiance then shot himself before the police could get in.

Now when I visit the old neighborhood I wonder who bought that house. About 10 years before this incident her father committed suicide in the same house. It gives me that "Amityville Horror" kind of feeling, not to mention a burning sense of loss.

Helen Wisocki wrote:

I, too, have many bad memories. For me to survive and be the strong and independent person I am today, I've had to push those memories aside, learn from my mistakes, change what I was capable of changing and not look back.

Excellent words of wisdom, some of the best I've ever heard.

Thank you, Brenda. You're so kind.

One of my worse memories, and I have a few, was receiving a phone call from my ten year old sons scout master to tell me my son was on his way to the ER. He had been swinging on a grapevine earlier but unknown to my son the vine had been broken. Taking a run and go he dove off the top of the hill with grapevine in hand. He plunged head first over the hill thirty feet hitting head first into a log. The Scout master said when he hit his body just crumpled (duh. . . do you think). The fear of not seeing or being able to hold him was the worse. Fortunately he recovered suffering a severe concussion. I have many but as someone stated, losing a child would be my worse nightmare. . . don't know if I could have survived that outcome.

It is hard to say what was my worst memory. I can't remember getting put into a childrens home but at six I remember when they gave me back to my mother. I stood on the steps of the home stamping my feet, not wishing to go with this strange woman theyy were saying was my mum. That was the start of two years of survival as I learned that food only came if you stole it from the shops and didn't let my mothers boyfriend find it. We all have dark memories the best thing is to sort them, file them and move on.

Some of the worst memories do disappear as our mind tries to protect us. When I worked as a mental health professional, people would often come in when those memories suddenly appeared in their minds. And just when we thought we had heard the worst, another person would come in with something much worse than the worst.

Carol

As Billy did, I filed them and moved on. Our past, whether horrific or wonderful is a part of who we are and what we have become. I think it makes us appreciate the world around us a little more, and be grateful for what we do have. And it definitely gives us the ability to have compassion for others who are now where we were.

I second that