Heart Broken & Mending After I Was Unceremoniously Dumped

When I was in my early twenties, I was unceremoniously dumped by my first love. I truly thought that there was no possible way to mend my broken heart. Little did I know that time truly was the key to healing after heart break. At the time, the pain felt overwhelming, I remember asking friends and family members to tell me how do I mend my broken heart? The advice was always the same; it takes time to mend a broken heart.

So what exactly did I do while passing the time until my bruised, battered and broken heart was healed? I slept. I slept a lot.

You know the girl in the movie who spends a week in bed with the covers pulled up over her head until her mother comes in and pulls back the drapes, letting in the bright light of the sun, giving a cheery pep talk? Yeah, that was me. I can recommend no greater way to pass the time directly after being dumped than to sleep, preferably with the covers over your head.

After this first week had passed and I got over the shock that the heartbreak was not going to be the end of me, I moved on to phase two of my healing process. I like to think of this phase as the “Feeding your heart” phase. It involved copious amounts of ice cream, and not just any ice cream, Baskin Robbins “Jamocha Almond Fudge” to be exact. The ten pounds I had lost the week before where quickly found in multiple pints of that swirly coffee ice cream goodness. For a short time, I believed I had found my new love, and its name was ice cream.

By week number three, I had stopped sleeping all of the time, and had tentatively put down the ice cream spoon and backed slowly away from the freezer. It took a good long time to fully recover from this, my first heartbreak. Even now, some 15 years later, I can remember the pain and hopelessness that I felt at the time. But it is absolutely true what they say, time does heal all wounds. I know that someday I will have to nurse my own daughter through her first broken heart. I will assure her that as lame as it sounds, time will mend broken heart. Then I will pass her the ice cream, pull up her covers and wait with her.

Margot Brosnan
37 years old
Veterinarian Assistant