I read Bernard Sumner's (New Order's singer and Joy Division's guitarist) autobiography some years ago. In it he mentioned an aunt who spent her younger years looking after an unwell family member. By the time that was over she realised she was too old to marry and have children. That realisation literally made her go insane. I don't know if she was institutionalised or not (these days the institutions are empty and the mentally ill are either on powerful tranquilisers or on the street). But she was mentally and emotionally wrecked.
The moral of the story is this: we don't always know how important something is to us until it's too late. Men respond to this realisation with anger, sorrow and often an early death, either self-inflicted or from a broken heart. This woman responded with insanity of some kind.
I pity this woman and those of us holding deep regrets. Ones that cannot easily be healed, if at all.
New Order have a song called "Regret". We'll that's it written large.
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