Right. It's my mum's birthday today, so I've come home for a couple of days in order to take her out for lunch, give her my presents and just generally celebrate her birthday. However, one of my housemates is leaving tomorrow to go back to America and chances are I will never see him again. I saw him for the last time on wednesday night, before him and another housemate went on a 1 day belated birthday trip to Paris, and completely forgot to say goodbye. It just didn't register that it was the last time I was going to see him before I left.

I realised on thursday morning, after he had left for Paris, and got really quite upset about it. He'd written a note to each of us, posting it under our bedrooms doors, thanking us for a fantastic time and writing unique bits to us individually. Reading it just set me off. I felt horrible that I had forgotten to say goodbye and wouldn't be there on his last night in England (which is tonight). I considered not coming home so that I could say goodbye properly, but I had already promised my mum that I would take her out to lunch, so I would have felt awful for cancelling on her birthday. Instead I wrote a letter and put it under his door explaining the situation, apologising and saying goodbye. That made me feel a bit better, but I still feel guilty.

What would you have done?