Is it normal i'm still feeling this way?

This is kind of a long story, I'm sorry, but I won't include every single detail. Just the main points.

I had a very close friend named Katie. I had known her since the early nineties when I was only 3 years old. I met her because her parents were friends of my family. They met us when we first moved to the area at the time. Her and I immediately developed a friendship, and over the years we became very close. She was my best friend who was always there for me and helped me through rough times. She was better to me than anybody else, nobody made me feel as good as she did, and I was happy to know I had her in my life.
In early 2008 things started getting bad. The year had already began rough for me as it is, but come March, Katie became very sick. Doctors diagnosed her with a rare blood-related disorder known as Histiocytosis. She seemed to be pulling through over the next course of months, and although I was worried, I was confident and had faith in her recovering.
She passed away on November 26, 2008.
All efforts were, as it turned out, not good enough unfortunately. I was devastated enough that I lost my closest friend who meant everything to me and had known my whole life, but there's more to it that goes much deeper.
I have had stronger feelings for her over the years, as in wanting a relationship with her. I felt the attraction. However I wasn't sure if she felt the same way. As a matter of fact I was pretty sure she didn't. So I never said anything. After a while then I let those feelings go, and I was content that I had her as a good friend.
But I spoke with her, just a day before her passing. It was hard to see her like that, but I needed to be there for her. She talked with me for the longest time, despite how weak and in pain she was. But one thing she did tell me, gave me a feeling I'll never forget.
She told me that she had romantic feelings for me. Like the same kind I had for her. But she was too nervous to tell me before, and she didn't think I felt the same. She told me she felt that way for me ever since she first met me, and that being with me was the only thing she ever wanted in her life.

I can't even describe how I felt after that. To say that was the most horrible I've ever felt in my life...it's an understatement. I can't believe that she felt the same way as me, and I didn't even know it. I felt guilty to the point where I deserved to be in hell. She wanted me to be her lover, that's all she wanted to make her happy. But I couldn't do it because it was too late. Even though she was too nervous to tell me before, I feel I was to stupid to not notice, and too much of a coward to tell her my own feelings. Her illness may have been inevitable, but she would've have died a happier woman had things been different that way.
Following her passing, I faced about 4 months of severe depression, being sick for long periods, and anger issues. It took me almost 10 months or so to return to my normal self, but even though there were days where I enjoyed myself and was happy, I still felt horrible deep down for not being able to provide her with what she wanted most in her life.
It's been over 3 years now since she died, and I feel that I have definitely changed as a person. I've struggled with drug use for a period. At this point I think I'm just sick, as in not mentally stable. After what my mind has been through, the tragedy, the depression, the drugs..all of the damage. Now I just feel like I've gone crazy.
But no matter what state my mind is in, I still feel the same about Katie, who will always my angel. I still think about her every single day, and some days she's all I think about. From time to time I still get very sad about her, and I go somewhere I can be alone and just cry. Despite how long it's been, I still just can't live with what I've done. How oblivious and blindsided I've been..

Is it normal to still feel this way?
(Sorry for all the writing.)

Voting Results
92% Normal
Based on 26 votes (24 yes)
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Comments ( 18 )
  • noatomsk

    Aww.

    These things happen. No one is perfect. Did you at least share a kiss that day? Did she say she'd be with you in spirit?

    Nothing you can do about it, and there's no reason to suffer any longer.

    Try to carry on her memory and be happy, that's what she would have wanted.

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  • gators=amazing

    wow, your story brought tears to my eyes, I wish I could say I know exactly how you feel and that would be a lie. But in a retrospect I kind of know where you're coming from. I lost one of the closet people to me back in May 2011. My child's father took his life, it was the worst news I could have ever been told. We're on a break when it happened, it was for us to get our relationship back on track. But in the end I never trully got to tell him how much I cared about him for the last time. Now I sit home each and everyday trying to just be able to cope with daily life. Its always going to be a consent struggle. You just have to know the healthiest way of dealing with it. I find venting and writing does help a little bit. Have you tried sitting down and writing exactly whats going on up in your noggin down on paper even if it doesnt make sense? It may help, or you could write a letter addressed to Katie telling her how you're feeling and what you've always wanted to say to her. After you get done writing it, go outside and burn it. Burning it kind of helps the message pass through the spiritual world through the smoke (it may sound a little crazy, but for your own minds sanity what do you really have to lose?)

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  • VsegdaTemnata

    Of course it's normal.

    Doesn't it seem that no matter where you turn, people seem to downplay the horror of losing someone you love? They all say the same thing - cry, talk to others, do things that you enjoy. It seems to have been written by someone who had never lost someone. Cry? Of course you'll cry. You'll cry yourself sick until you have no tears left. Talk to others? Of course you'll do that too, and at times that will make you sick too, since no one can be in your shoes. Do things that you enjoy? There is nothing to enjoy in life anymore once you lose someone that you love.

    Life is not the same after you lose somebody. It never will be. Happiness will never seem wholesome, pure, and innocent again. And the heartwrenching pain is within the fact that you CANNOT GO BACK! You cannot go back in time and get the person back or re-live a day. It is irreversible. What has happened is permanent. We seem to look forward to death, the ultimate release, the final escape from pain. We know there is no escape from the pain.

    However, know that time washes things away. It will dull the pain. I can offer you no magic words. I can only sympathize with you. Believe me, I wish there were those magic words to heal you, and to heal me, too.

    The reality of life is: Horrible things will happen, and some of them will have no fix. Death will be the fix. It just goes to show, life is hard, and life is real... and it passes so fast, too. We are raised from the soil and back to the soil we will return.

    Thinking about the one I lost offers me only one little light: I will die, and I will be with him, there, in the ground. Finally re-united. Until then, I will bear my horrible existence in this world to the best of my abilities. And never forget my love.

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  • normalguy123

    i can imagine being in your position so im not sure what to say, but i can say it wasnt your fault

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  • BoredGuy

    I can understand how you feel, but its important not let life defeat you cause she is a bitch. Get stronger and demand you happiness.

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    • Why is she a bitch?
      Did you even read this..

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      • BoredGuy

        >.<

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    • Shackleford96

      You are saying that life is a bitch, right?

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      • BoredGuy

        yes

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  • Sabby

    Don't beat your self up. It isnt your fault you honestly didn't know. Yes it is normal to have these emotions but really don't be hard on yourself, it wasn't your fault c:

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  • I have a strong feeling that this is scripted.

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    • Well thanks, maybe I'll make myself a good career out of it. Maybe write a few screenplays or fucking novels maybe..

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      • In all honesty, it wasn't meant to be a compliment, although I could see you becoming an author if you tried hard enough.

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        • In all honesty, I know that it wasn't a compliment, I was being sarcastic. What is wrong with you..
          How could you think I would make something like this up?

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          • It happens alot on this site. Alot of people make up fake stories, it's only natural that some will view other stories as fake. Don't blame me, blame the other users that have faked stories and made it that the users doubt stories.

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            • I'm sorry.
              But It's just no one has ever accused me of making this up before, which offends me because this is the worst thing that's ever happened to me, it's completely ruined my life. You have no idea.

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