People are sharing the most difficult pieces of news they've ever had to break to someone — and their stories are gut-wrenching.
It all started when Reddit user u/Necessary-Thought-91 posed a question to the internet: "What’s the hardest thing you’ve had to tell someone?" Here are the top-voted responses.
Warning: Some responses include difficult topics including suicide and pregnancy loss.
1. "I had to tell my grandfather that he wasn't going to come home from the hospital."
2. "I had to (separately) tell my two young boys, my sister-in-law, and my mother-in-law that my wife (their mother/sister/daughter) had died. It's been over three years, and thinking about it is still devastating."
3. "'I don't want this marriage anymore.'"
4. "Trying to restore a computer hard drive for some parents whose toddler drowned in his grandmother's pool. When they had him, they got a digital camera, so all photos were on the drive. No backups. They had lost all their pictures of their son. After seeing the mother's face, I had to clock out for the day."
5. "The time I had to tell our neighbor that I had just witnessed his beautiful collie hit and killed by a vehicle speeding through the neighborhood. We both loved that dog dearly, so it was a real heartbreaking moment to deliver such sad news."
6. "Telling my parents I was a heroin addict. I was in an abusive relationship, hard into drugs, and worried I would die. I needed help. My dad sat with me through the entire withdrawal, and I'll be 10 years clean this November. I tell him all the time that he saved my life."
7. "When I was 14, I had to call my mother and tell her my eldest brother committed suicide. My dad could not call her because they were divorced and she had blocked him."
8. "Firefighter/EMT here. Had to tell a family on Christmas Eve one year that their baby was dead."
9. "My son is 4, and I have been trying to talk about his adoption with him. His favorite movie used to be Kung Fu Panda, so I introduced the concept of 'tummy mummies and daddies,' but he just looked at me like I was nuts. He had no concept of how babies were grown, and besides, babies come to the house via a DCF worker who drops them off, silly Mommy. (I was a foster parent for many years.) I have several kids books about adoption, but he hates reading. I just keep gently trying to introduce the concept of 'grown in another belly,' but he is not interested at all."
10. "Had to tell an expecting mother that the reason she didn’t feel the baby moving was that the baby was dead, three weeks before her due date."
11. "I had to tell my wife her father just died in a car accident."
12. "I'm a criminal defense attorney. Hardest thing for me was telling someone they would spend the rest of their life in jail."
13. "Working in management at a nursing home, I had to call the family member of a resident with dementia and let her know that the resident’s caregiver was witnessed slapping the resident across the face. Apparently the resident was resisting care, and that was how the caregiver decided to respond."
14. "Calling my mom to tell her my father died of cancer. He had Alzheimer's, and I was the one who was staying with him that night (he had to be watched 24/7 or he would escape the hospital)."
15. "'The secretary of the Army regrets to inform you...' to a Vietnam vet whose son had just died in Afghanistan. Then having to give the same speech to the kid’s mother, who was chain-smoking and bawling her eyes out because the dad called to tell her before I got there."
16. "Had to tell my friend's ex-girlfriend why he had a closed-casket funeral. He stepped in front of an 18-wheeler on the highway."
17. "I had to tell a 4-year-old that I couldn't be his mum. Context: Growing up, my parents fostered. Just before I moved out, we looked after two kids under 5. I was reading him his bedtime story, and out of nowhere he just said, 'I don't have a mummy. Can you be my mum?' in this teary voice. Both siblings have a really happy home now, but I went to bed teary-eyed that night."
18. "A few years ago I had to tell my 14-year-old daughter that her 16-year-old cousin had committed suicide. It was the most heartbreaking thing I’ve ever had to witness."
19. "My breast cancer has spread to my bones. It's stage 4. At this stage, the doctors focus on management rather than cure. The average time between diagnosis and death is about five years."
20. "I had to tell my dad that my brother died. The last time they saw each other was not a good visit, and I think our dad really regretted treating him badly, but now reconciliation was no longer possible."
21. "Had to tell my 3-year-old son that 'Mommy just forgot. She still loves you' after she showed up and only picked up my 5-year-old daughter ON HIS THIRD BIRTHDAY, which was also her 'every other weekend.' She took my daughter to a fucking fair. Rides, cotton candy, the works. Ugh. My family got together on three hours' notice to throw him an impromptu birthday party to distract him. Thank god for them."
22. "I had to tell everyone at work a colleague of ours had taken his own life that morning."
23. "I worked in a retirement home where they had a locked memory floor. There were far too many family members who would bring their husband or mother or whoever to sit down and discuss them moving in...but made ME be the one to tell them. 'Okay, Mom, so we're here at so-and-so place. This lady wants to tell you something.' And then the whole family would stare at me and expect me to give the news to the person. 'Oh, by the way, your family is planning on selling your house and things, and now you're going to be living in this room until you die.'"
24. "Had to tell my mom my brother had been killed in a one-car automobile accident. Had to talk her gently through it several times over about a week because she just couldn't process losing her son."
25. "I had to tell my mother that her mom had been killed — by my uncle, no less."
26. "Acting as an election officer. Four roles to fill and five candidates. Most of the candidates didn't even bother turning up for the public count. The one who did turn up was super keen. Once I counted all the votes, I had to tell her that she was the loser. The only loser. I could barely look at her as I announced the result. I left quickly, as she was still being consoled by her friends."
27. "My family posted the death of my grandpa on Facebook around 3 a.m., and I took off to my mom's house to let her know in person before she saw it ONLINE...hardest thing to do so far. She was so close to him, and it really hit her hard."
And finally...
28. "Trying to explain to my mom who I was to her."
You can read the full thread of responses on Reddit.
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.