Tales of a coffee-holic: Breaking bad news

I have no patience for people who attempt to completely ignore the unpleasant things that happen in life.

I totally believe that sensationalism in the news is wrong and that constant streams of stories about murders and explosions is not a fair representation of what’s happening in the world. But bad things do happen often and people need to know about it.

I recently reconnected with a very close friend from high school on Facebook. We exchanged quite a few lengthy messages talking about what was new in our lives before I told her about some not so pleasant things going on with my family. She...