There’s a small group of women I’ve had long-term (+20 years) friendships with. If I were Oprah, they’d be my “girlfriends.”
These relationships are all perfectly above-board. They may all be friends I brought into the marriage, but Mrs. Kunilou knows them all and we socialize with them whenever we can get together. But lately, they’ve all had exhibited signs of stress.
One wants to chuck her career and move to a small town somewhere. If her husband would like to come along, that would be even better, but if not…
One is going through a very stressful time in her marriage, and her last few communications with me have been so depressing I’ve encouraged her to seek counseling.
One of them dropped a broad hint that when she met her husband 20 years ago, that maybe his first marriage wasn’t quite over, if you get the drift.
And finally, one’s mother died a few months ago, and even though (or perhaps because) they didn’t get along that well, she’s having a tremendous problem adjusting to the loss.
These women don’t even know each other but they all seem to be going through rough spots at the same time in their lives – the late 40s. Is it the time of year? Is it the time in their lives? I can’t talk to one about another, because they all just go into their own cycle of depression, and I don’t want to even talk about anything that might be bothering me, because I don’t want to seem to pile on to their own problems.
Mrs. Kunilou is baffled by this turn of events, as well. While her own girlfriends have certainly had their share of struggles, she can’t recall a time where all her best buds were going through such a bad spell simultaneously.
So what’s a supportive guy supposed to do?