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AITA for showing up to a memorial unannounced?
Hey all. I did something that may have gotten people a little offended, but no one seems to be able to flat out tell me. So let me know what you all think. There’s going to be a lot of context…
A good friend of mine passed away about 10 years ago. Every year since then me and a group of friends have held private memorials to honor him. Part of it too is sometimes we pool some money together to support his family, him not being well off when he passed. This group of friends is really only tangentially friends with me, I would more so consider them coworkers or acquaintances, while someone I consider my very good friend was there.
About a few months ago before the memorial this year, one of the guys running it politely recommended, but didn’t ask nor tell, me not to come. I was sort of shocked by this. The memorial was for my friend too. What right does he have to tell me so? When I asked for his reasoning he went into my political beliefs which differ heavily from his. Even though I accepted this and politely agreed, I said some harsh words about him later on to a group of friends who I thought it would stay confidential with. Nothing serious, just blowing off steam and sort of outraged that this guy was gatekeeping a memorial. But it ended up getting back to the guy, and while before he was respectful to me he was super pissed now. But a friend who i confided in essentially told me to bury the hatchet, so I thought the event would be a good place to do so.
So back to present time…when I arrived at the memorial, I saw a coworker I used to be friends with was there. I called out his name and he ignored me. A little weird, but ok. I thought he just may not have heard me. When I entered I saw my friend who had disinvited me, let’s call him M. I attempted to approach the table he was sitting at just to explain my presence, but before I even got a word out he went “DUDE! WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU HERE? AFTER THAT SHIT YOU SAID ABOUT ME?”
Immediately I thought “oh no”. I attempted to explain to him the context in which I said those things, that I was angry and didn’t mean any of it but he wouldn’t listen. I looked at my friends seeing if they would maybe defend me but none of them did. Then the previous coworker I called out to physically escorted me out of the building like an animal. I was humiliated and shocked.
When i got home i went into a rage. I called up a person who was there, someone i consider a good friend, and explained the situation to him. He didn’t really give me a direct answer, instead saying we were both wrong. Ok. So i called up another friend. And while he wouldn’t directly say, i got the impression that he was leaning towards M’s side in this situation.
So what gives? What did I do wrong? I attempted to patch things up with someone I had wronged while also trying to pay tribute to my friend who had passed. Am i missing something? AITA?
I guess they got a little UHHFENDED!!