I had to end a friendship

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I first met Mel during orientation week in a Malaysian university back in 1991. I didn't have a good first impression of her, but as I got to know her better, I began to like her. She enjoyed being different, she loved to stand out from the crowd. Not like me. I preferred to be invisible, I hated to draw attention whereas she revelled in it. But somehow, we clicked. After 4 years, we finished our tertiary education and started working. I landed a job as a flight attendant with a Hong Kong-based airline. It came in handy in keeping my friendship with Mel going, as my job allowed me to fly home to Malaysia regularly and I'd quite often meet up with her. Then, she got a scholarship to do her PhD in the UK. At around that time, I met a guy from the UK, got married and moved to the UK myself. We didn't see each other much in the UK as we were in different parts of the country, but we kept in touch through the phone a lot. In 2001, she invited me to a party to celebrate her wedding registration. She was getting married to her English boyfriend. I immediately said yes, I would attend. When I later told my husband about this, he wasn't too pleased. We were both in the civil service at the time, and we were struggling financially. My take home salary went towards the apartment rent, and my husband's take home salary paid for the food, utilities, transportation to work, etc. She'd invited us to attend only the party and not the wedding registration itself. My husband said if we went, it would be a very expensive trip, one we couldn't really afford. Also, the day of her party fell on my husband's birthday. He wanted to celebrate it with his parents as he was an only child and as we were due to be posted abroad, he thought it would be last time he'd get to celebrate a birthday with his parents. It wasn't easy for me to call her and tell her that I wouldn't be able to make it after all. I mentioned my husband's birthday as an excuse. She sounded disappointed but I suppose that was to be expected. We kept in touch as normal, and when she had a big Chinese wedding dinner in Malaysia, I managed to attend that. In 2003, we were living in the Middle East, and although my husband had said we weren't going to go back to the UK on holiday during our posting, we had to go back on our word, when my husband's Scandinavian grandma decided to celebrate her 90th birthday in the UK. I wrote to Mel saying I was going to be back in the UK and would she like to meet up. I also mentioned some things about living in this Middle East country. Her email reply upset me. It really wasn't a very nice email. I showed it to my husband who said it sounded condescending. I wrote again, thinking perhaps she was just kidding and I had misunderstood the contents of her email, but her second email wasn't nice either. Neither was her 3rd. Soon I discovered the reason for this. She'd been harbouring resentment towards me for not attending her wedding party. I couldn't believe it. I apologised but it was no use. After awhile I sent another email trying to make light of the situation but she didn't bother replying. After a few months, I wrote to her telling her that I was pregnant with my first baby. Back came this reply that sounded like the sort you receive from a business contact. I'll always remember it although I deleted it long ago. It said 'Congratulations on the good news and good luck with preparations for the new arrival'. I felt really said. I showed the email to my husband and told him, that was the end of the friendship for me. I think about her sometimes and it does sadden me that our friendship ended that way. I think I did enough to try and salvage it but she was too stubborn.... Sorry, this is like a short story but I just wanted to get it out... Would love any comments about this.