Dear Annie: A few weeks ago, a friend and I had a trip to Costco planned. The night before, I fell in my house and wasn’t sure if I sprained or broke my hand in the wee hours. I couldn’t make up my mind whether I should go to urgent care in the morning or the ER that night. I was in pain, but it wasn’t killing me, so I decided to reevaluate it in the morning. I was hurting enough in the morning to decide to go.

Unbeknownst to me, my friend was irritated with me for that choice. She is a caregiver by trade, and taking me to the urgent care was like working for her without getting paid. I didn’t find out she was irritated with me until the next week. I apologized genuinely and told her how I would do it differently the next time, now knowing how she felt.

I don’t drive due to a visual-spatial disability. When my friend expressed that she had plans for later that afternoon, I offered to take an Uber home from the urgent care. She dropped me off anyway. We still went to Costco. I didn’t know she was irritated with me until I got a curt text the next week.

I tried to explain how I felt. The people who would have taken me to urgent care instead of her both died unexpectedly in a single 24-hour period last October. If she gets hurt, she has a husband who can take her or at least meet her wherever. I don’t have anyone, and it’s a lonely place to be. Her response was to tell me not to compare my suffering to hers. I wasn’t. She said she was past the whole thing and that she was just setting a healthy boundary with me.

I feel like she thinks I am selfish for not waiting until after our planned excursion to find out if my hand was broken or not (based on what she has said). I really like her, but the whole thing is making me see her in a less positive way than before. Thankfully, my hand has a bad sprain, not a break, and it’s still in a brace two and a half weeks later.

Am I wrong for feeling like I am owed an apology? I feel like if she can’t do that, we don’t have a snowball’s chance of moving forward. Her house is five minutes from the urgent care, and I didn’t ask her to stay with me. She went home and waited until I was done. At any rate, when she said she was past it, I tried to resume our relationship. I texted last week to see how her day was going, and she couldn’t find the time to respond. Apparently, that was wrong of me, too.

I am really bothered by the whole situation. I am socially isolated by not having much money and not driving. I don’t want to lose her as a friend, but at the same time, I am done apologizing. I don’t think I did anything wrong. Perhaps I miscalculated how much she cares about me to expect me to delay medical treatment to better fit her schedule? — Sprained and Strained

Dear Sprained: It’s extremely odd how little concern this woman showed for your well-being after your at-home accident. A true friend would never treat this sort of situation as “working without getting paid,” but instead would be ready and willing to help however you needed.

Perhaps you both could use some more time and space from each other to cool off. If she continues to behave in this way in the future, she may not be someone you can consider a friend after all.

Dear Annie: Recently, I retired from youth sports coaching. I am writing this letter to warn your readers about an alarming trend that I have noticed over the last decade. Namely, parents will attend their kids’ sporting events, but then spend most of the time on their smartphones.

This is very different from seeing people glued to their phone screens in an airport or doctor’s waiting room or other places in which they would not normally socialize. I am talking about the people who are parents or guardians at their kids’ practices or games.

Their actions tell their kids that they and their activities are not important enough to hold their attention. It’s a bad message. The kids do something great and look to the sidelines for parental approval and get nothing. I’ve even had parents approach me after a game to ask me to describe their child’s goal because they missed it.

There is going to be more and more tech. It’s not about the phone, as such. It is about people knowing their role as parents and having the restraint to focus their attention appropriately. Do people own phones or are they owned by them? — Former Youth Coach

Dear Former Youth Coach: Your letter brings up an important distinction. Staring at a screen is never that healthy, and there is a time when it is especially harmful — when parents are supposed to be watching and supporting their children.

While your physical presence is nice, your attention to the game, and your child, is what matters. If you are just staring at a screen, your kid doesn’t get that reassurance and love they need to do their best. They might wonder why you’re even there or if they are worth your attention.

Children watch and mimic everything. If you want to keep your child off of smartphones, put the phone down and be in the moment. Present but absent parents can cause great damage to their children.

Dear Annie: I am a survivor of the flooding after Hurricane Katrina. One lesson I learned from that horrific experience is that I had lost a lot of “stuff” that I didn’t need to replace. Many of us accumulate far too many worldly goods. In lieu of exchanging more stuff, my friends now plan outings together and pick up the tab for the celebrant. We have attended jazz concerts, visited museums and watched movies together. We live in New Orleans where there are great restaurants, so we usually include a meal, too. We enjoy each other’s company while having great life experiences. And we don’t accrue more stuff that we have to maintain and store. — Less Stuff, More Fun.

Dear Less Stuff: I am sorry for all that you had to endure during and after Hurricane Katrina. It sounds like you were able to take a horrible situation and find a silver lining. The memories and experiences that you create with friends and family are priceless, and you see that. Congratulations on enjoying deeper friendships through fun and joyous experiences.