It was a Thursday morning. I was at work when I got a phone call from my friend's work. It was HR and her manager on the phone wanting to know if I had heard from her. I was one of her emergency contacts. She hadn't responded to their attempts to reach her. I had a bad feeling immediately. But still

tried to reach out anyway. A small glimmer of hope that maybe against all odds there was something I did not yet know. Unfortunately it was confirmed later that day what I knew the moment I received that phone call. I haven't talked about it because I've never talked about what I went through.