A kind word can mean a lot when you’re down

Last Friday night I took part in the Pieta House ‘Darkness into Light’ walk in Galway. I walked the entire journey on my own and not one single person spoke to me or made any effort to engage with me in conversation.

Everyone around me laughed and enjoyed each other’s company. I felt so alone, and especially so because of the reasons behind why we were walking.

I was lost in my own thoughts, thinking of the thousands of people on the walk and the dark night nearly 30 years ago when I admitted myself to a psychiatric hospital as an alternative to taking my life when I felt so alone in severe depression. At one stage I passed a walker on her own and spoke briefly to her, momentarily taking me out of my feeling of aloneness.