Today Feels Dark and Looming

It isn't actually dark; right now it is sunny and the air is crisp. I went outside to get the mail and it looks like a nice day though the weather forecast is mixed.

But both my kids have colds so we're home and watching too much TV, and everyone I've talked to today is having Major Problems.

First, I talked to a relative to whom I'm very close, a fellow mommy of a 2 1/2 year old. She gets a propensity for depression from both sides, and it is clear from her voice that she is Not Doing Well. Her current combination of medications is not doing the job. She works a part-time gig, and spends most of her time taking care of her child, and she's to the point that she'd like to check herself in for a serious psychiatric work-up. Yet she doesn't know what she'd do with the work or the kids. Today she called in sick and her husband came home. I've talked to her twice today, and I feel so uncertain how to help. Even our usual topics of celebrity gossip and snarking on other relatives aren't perking her up, so I know she's in a very low place. I offered to take her child, but she is some distance away and there is the practical matter of how to get the child here.

Then I talked to the person who inspired my recent post on divorce. We didn't talk about her marital difficulties, but there was an undercurrent of tension in her voice and everything she said. I told her I'd heard she was having difficulties, and I'd do anything I could. I told her cute stories about the kids. But everything about her voice said "I am worn very very thin."

As I've been typing this, the sky has started to cloud over and I hear thunder. Which does at least suit the climate more to my mood. I wish so much that I could help these people. It is so hard to be in a dark place; I've been there myself.