Rosie sat close to Gail and wiped her tears. When she looked at the other side of the table she found the plates on the floor containing her breakfast. The toast and scrambled eggs with baked beans had not been touched.
“I want you to listen carefully,” she said, carefully choosing her words. “When bad things happen to us, the first thing we do is to take the easy options. Those easy options are not many. They are only two. Just two.”
Gail looked at her expectantly, her eyes swollen and red.
“The first thing we do is to blame someone and the second is to blame ourselves. It’s very easy because it makes us feel good. We blame ourselves for things that we have done that we shouldn’t have done or those that we should have done but haven’t done. Regrets here and there.”
Gail nodded. She could identify with that. She had expressed regrets on a number of occasions for not having her operation at the military hospital. She knew of several colleagues who had had keyhole operations at their base. Everything had been uneventful.
“You see, no matter how much you blame yourself or someone else it won’t change things. You probably knew that already. You’ve been here now for?”
“Three months.”
“That’s right. You can’t keep blaming yourself or other people and denying yourself nutrition and medication. Things can only get worse by so doing.”