Sigh. First, the people who commented were my friends -- which I made clear in the piece. (They were not random trolls, which I also said in the piece, and that would have been different). Specifically, one was a friend from high school, one from college, one I know from horseback riding, one from dating, one from kindergarten. So no, I don't think I was naive to expect them to be kind.

Second, your bar analogy makes no sense. I don't expect people to be "caring and understanding" -- I expect them to not be affirmatively cruel. I wasn't telling a "heartbreaking story" when I posted this; I was posting a fun day at the beach. However, if I *did* walk into a bar and told a "heartbreaking story" I wouldn't expect people to be "caring and understanding" but I would expect them to not be... say it with me...affirmatively cruel.

I think you need to dig deep and figure out why your knee jerk reaction is to lecture me that I should expect the worst from humanity, rather than the opposite.