When things were starting to go downhill for me with depression, my husband tried to get me out of the house (as people who are new to it will often do).

We went to a public place where I had to sit and tell him to go ahead with one of the kids to see something.

I had my sunglasses on so there were no facial clues there...but a woman came over to me and just patted me on the back and told me that she was sorry that I was hurting.

I will never know how she knew anything was wrong, but it really, really touched me. Just the memory of it makes me tear up.

This is an excellent thread...thank you.