I feel pretty bad today.
A few days ago, I received an email from my ex-husband, letting me know that the rabbit we had adopted together years ago had passed away. I hadn't heard anything from my ex in several years, so I emailed him back to give my condolences, and to ask him how he's been. It turns out that he is disabled now from the progression of a disease that he had just been diagnosed with when we were together. He can't leave the house alone, and relies on his long-time girlfriend to support him.
Ugh. I feel horrible about this. I feel like I abandoned someone without any regard to what they were going through, or how it might have affected our relationship. I might as well have left someone because they were diagnosed with cancer, or something.
I didn't leave him
because of the disease, and I guess it didn't really seem like a big problem back then. But I can see now how a large part of my discontent could have been due in part to what he was suffering. He had such a sedentary lifestyle, and I couldn't handle that. I was also suffering from an extreme mental disorder at the time, and all I could think of was trying to get the heck out of there so I could try to make my life better (he disapproved of my attending therapy, in addition to being rather controlling in general).
I know I did the only thing I could have for myself at the time, but I still can't shake the feeling of guilt at knowing that he is disabled and I didn't do much of anything to make his life better (which is all I ever wanted for him in the first place).
I don't even know what to reply to his email. How do you make atonement for something that you're not in a situation to fix? :

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