Hard to explain without going into lengthy detail or simply reposting the story - a lot of people remember it as the "Best friend who convinced all my other friends I was on heroin story" - Link
or the TL:DR for those like myself that hates playing follow the links...
Best friend of over a decade, rented him a room in my house. Horrible accident, loses fiance, I let him live with me for free for almost a year. Got switched to 3rd shift, hardly got to hang out with our other friends. He spread lies about me shooting heroin. I found out, confronted him, he didn't care. Couldn't convince other friends, so I dropped them too. Ridiculous, and hurtful.
He surprised me moving out so fast after I confronted him - but of course it was in vein. For 1 bedroom, he left a closet just full of shit, garbage all over. Like seriously, can't believe he turned into such a douche. So after everything, I had to clean out this cunt's room.
His fiance had died about 8 months or so before this, and since then he just.. never cleared out her stuff. But instead, just threw - THREW it all in the closet. So I had the immense joy (NOT) of going through all her stuff, all the way to the very bottom with a box of stuff she had actually moved in when she was alive.
They met under weird cirumstances, a small farming town. She was practically homeless, her Dad was a drunk drawing disability and it got so bad she left the minute she turned 18 - and when her and my best friend met... it was like a movie. They fell madly in love, and it was adorable; really. And it was like that the entire time they were together - she lived for him.
Anyway, so I'm going through this box of stuff - which has brought me to tears honestly. During the 6 or so months she lived with us, we had became really good friends. She was my "other" best friend, and when she died I was crushed. Not as bad as my roommate of course, but still very devastated. So going through all this was awful.
Back on point - I get to that bottom box, and it's full of medical papers, and even more mysteriously - a ton of completely full prescription bottles; all with her name on it.
I'm not a doctor by any means, and honestly I was pretty confused. Most of it was bills, she owed a lot of medical bills being without insurance, so I went to the internet and started typing in these prescription names... and it was the worst of news.
Goes to find out she was dying; cervical cancer.
She was in pain a lot, but I just thought maybe she was a hypochondriac - I mean after all it's not my business. I did what I could to help, she was always taking over the counter stuff for her stomach. When I'd suggest she go to a doctor, she'd say she didn't have insurance - didn't want to rack up a bill. I was so naive.
Anyway, there's no telling how advanced it was - but judging by the extreme amounts of pain she'd get into and the fact she had gone untreated for the 6 months we knew her... I doubt she was long for this world anyway.
I don't know if my ex friend knew or not, honestly I thought about calling him - but at the same time... I just couldn't get over how bad he betrayed me so I left it. He probably knew, but he may not have.
I still have mixed feelings about it. I mean really, the whole thing... was just so shitty. It's still shitty and she died about 7 years ago now. Never reconnected with my "best friend", so really it's a moot issue now. But that doesn't mean I still don't think about her from time to time.
TL:DR She was dying of cervical cancer, went untreated the 6 months we knew her/she lived with us.