Three Depressives and a Birthday

Today was special for being one of the days in October which broke our weather record. It has been unseasonably warm and sunny, weather which frankly is far from the norm for this time of year. Tomorrow will be the day things begin to change and I'm told we can start seeing overnight frosts and possibly snow very soon.
It was also my wife's Godson's Birthday party and we were all invited. For a change, I was quite relaxed and rather looking forward to it. It was a very pleasant event. My son was in his element, a little hoarse perhaps from a recent cold, but he joined in with glee squirting water at everyone and generally running around as kids of his age do.
While I was sitting there, it suddenly dawned on me that I was accompanied by two others who have been affected by varying degrees of depression. We have all been affected in different ways for this illness is quite unique to the individual. But to each of us, our experiences were intensly private and whereas three men would normally exchange banter about football, gardening or the weather, this did not happen. Of course we all had a good idea of what we had each been through - and were still going through - but it's simply not the sort of thing you can strike up a conversation over. There was just a very quiet knowing sense among us of the dark places we had all been to, and most probably feared returning to.
For I don't actually think depression is something you can discuss in a 'therapy' kind of way. It's not like being an alcoholic or drug abuser. You don't choose to have depression, it forces itself upon you like some enormous weight, pressing down. I know this.
So amongst all the jovality and the fun, I was so deeply aware of this 'secret pain' that existed hidden from normal view. But it is something all the 'grown ups' are aware of. They understand and are sympathetic, for they all know someone who is affected by it. I felt comforted to know this and a closeness quite unique to 'people like us'...