All that time...

Today I was walking past the hospital, on my way to Coffee Culture, when I saw someone I know. We used to be quite close but lost contact when I moved away from Dunedin. Back then she had just been accepted into medical school, but had to defer her entry for a year because she was suffering from Anorexia. The last time we spoke, she had just spent four months in hospital. She was looking quite healthy and made sure I knew that she was now well, not anorexic, not sick, the future looked bright. We were in a cafe and when she put her bag on the table I saw that she was carrying not one, but two books that listed calorie values for foods; she was drinking diet coke. That was the last time we spoke. Until today, the last time I had seen her was about a month after that meeting and she was power walking down the street. I'd say she weighed about 35kg. Today, I was walking toward the coffee shop and she was walking at speed out of the hospital grounds and veered along the path that leads on to a demanding walk up the hill. She had a feeding tube in her nose and looked like a walking skeleton. Guess how long ago it was that we were in that cafe toghether discussing our futures? That was fifteen years ago. I think this makes me feel very angry. Or maybe just sad.