This is a very difficult question. Since I have lived a long time, many sad things have happened. The gravity of events changed as I grew older. When I was two, my mother was in the hospital recovering from the birth of my brother on my second birthday. At the age of two, that was about as sad as it could be. I have a picture of myself sitting on the porch holding a doll and looking quite forlorn. When I was six, I broke my arm. It was very painful and more so because Mom insisted on washing it before we went to the doctor. The break requred surgery and a stay in the hospital. The boy in the room with me had his tonsils out and was given ice cream and chocolate pudding. I didn't know why at the time and thought they were being mean to me. I had to wear a cast for six weeks during the summer. Illinois gets hot and we didn't have air conditioning. That was a rough summer for me while Mom hoped that would change me from a lefty to a righty. It didn't. For my eighth birthday, Mom planned a party for me with the neighborhood children and for reasons still unknown to me, noone came. Mom and I celebrated alone with lots of cake and ice cream.
The saddest was when my Dad died and many years later when my Mom died. That is probably the saddest thing for all of us to lose our parents. Dad's death was quick. He had an episode in the summer. Spent a relatively normal fall and winter. He went into the hospital in March and a week later he died. Mom's death was a very slow one of Alzheimer's. Fortunately, she was happy and without pain for most of the time she was afflicted. Her lingering death was harder on all who loved her. Last year, my older sister died of cancer. She had a long struggle that was eventually lost. And, there will be more sadnesses in my life for without sadness we can't fully appreciate happiness.
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