I am coming here for insight.

I met this woman a few years ago, as we were introduced by a mutual friend who said this woman really needed someone to talk to. So I agreed to chat with her for a while. She was going through a divorce and had serious financial difficulties. I listened to her, offered to help her with moving her stuff (although she declined the offer), and I felt really bad for her. We had many long telephone conversations. She told me her husband had abused her. She told me she had gone around to many churches, asking for money, and none of them would help her. She was angry and upset. She sometimes called me late at night, I would talk to her. We met in person one time.

Then, the mutual friend who had introduced us told me that she had contacted this woman, and the woman replied back with an ugly email message. And that she would never contact her again based on the message. This should have been a red flag to me but I didn't really process it at the time.

I went on a vacation out of the country for a while and during that time (I found out later) she had called me and left a couple of voicemails. Coming back from a 3 week trip, I didn't bother to catch up on my voicemails or somehow I missed the ones she left. And so didn't return her calls.

I sent her an email a while later and heard nothing back.

A year ago, I tried to contact her again to see how things were going. She lashed out at me. But here is the weird part: She also told me she barely knew me at all, that I was just someone she had "met only once". Its true we met only once in person but we had talked via telephone and emails for over half a year, and we had a mutual friend in common. She also mentioned that she had left me those voicemails & never heard back from me (when I had been on vacation). So it seems there was a grudge going on.

So I now, with hindsight, realize the woman had some issues and she was never a friend. But what really ticked me off was her insistence that she didn't know me well at all. And I am now very wary of who I get to know these days. Will they lash out at me eventually for some reason? If we drift apart for a while, will they take it personally as though I have abandoned them?
I have drifted apart from other people in the past (didn't contact for a long time) and then we just picked up again later on and resumed our friendship.