Fiction: Petals
She was the love of his life. When he finally opened his heart to her (after much suffering and confusion), the response of her and her friends was to treat him with disdain and as if he was crazy. He still had compassion for her because he felt that her anger must cover pain and fear from her childhood from unresolved feelings related to abuse she suffered (which she had partially told him about). His therapist read every letter he wrote and said "they are the most beautiful and courageous letters I've ever read" but she added that Flora and her friends were among the worst possible people he could have confided in. "They're clearly people of staggering and unfathomable emotional immaturity," she said, "who appear to lack the most basic capacity for empathy, compassion and emotional intimacy while being controlling, abusive and manipulative." Every night he prayed that God would touch their hearts. He died 40 years later. He never stopped loving her. He never heard from them. They had forgotten his name decades earlier. A petal fell to the earth.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/rugby_union/article6973717.ece
