In addition to enthralling medical cases and dramatic romantic relationships, Grey’s Anatomy is marked by its central character’s constant misfortunes, particularly Meredith Grey. The long-lasting and award-winning medical drama explores the personal and professional lives of surgeons in Seattle as they build their careers and work to climb the surgical food chain to become the best of the best. The intriguing characters with larger-than-life personalities are part of what makes the show so memorable and successful, and Meredith Grey has served as a paramount example of this.
Meredith has been central to the show’s plot, as viewers have seen her mature and grow over many years. While her life is rich, thanks to a thriving medical career that she always dreamed of and a beautiful family, it is undeniable that Meridith Grey has seen more tragedy than almost any other character on TV. As Meredith now moves to Boston and leaves Seattle, ahead of Grey’s Anatomy season 20, hopefully, her bad luck does not come along with her.
1. Meredith Opened Her Heart To Derek, Only To Find Out He Was Still Married
One of the most captivating aspects of Grey’s Anatomy is Meredith and Derek’s relationship timeline, which was filled with ups and downs. Soon after beginning their relationship, a heartbreaking bombshell was dropped – Derek had been married to Addison the whole time. Given how difficult it was for Meredith to open her heart to Derek in the first place and the fact that she had just shared with him the details of her mother’s declining health, this was a terrible thing to have happened. It damaged her newfound growth in the trust department and came at a horrible time, given that she was navigating her mother having Alzheimer’s.
2. Meredith’s Mother Having Alzheimer’s & Not Knowing If She Would Get It Too
It is revealed from the pilot episode that Meredith’s highly intelligent and renowned surgeon mother, Ellis, was suffering from Alzheimer’s. In season 3, episode 17, “Some Kind of Miracle”, Ellis dies from the disease, leaving Meredith constantly on edge about her own future. Given that Alzheimer’s can be hereditary, Meredith expresses multiple times that she is extremely worried about having it, even going so far as telling Lexie that she might have “babies with Alzheimer’s”.
The worry never goes away for Meredith and even passes on to her daughter, Zola. At the beginning of Grey’s Anatomy’s season 19, viewers learn that Zola has been suffering from panic attacks. She is seen having one during a school presentation as she thinks about the possibility of her mother and aunt dying from Alzheimer’s. This entire storyline placed a lot of challenges for Meredith, as it plagued her with a deep sense of fear that follows her through her life and has even passed down to her children. The only upside is that it has motivated her to pursue research in the field.
3. One Of Meredith’s Best Friends, George, Dies & She Is The One To Discover It
The first of multiple horrific things to happen to Meredith in Grey’s Anatomy season 6 was George O’Malley, one of her best friends, dying. George had enlisted in the army to become a trauma surgeon, and on his way home to spend time with his family before officially joining, he saves a woman who is about to be hit by a bus. He does so by jumping in front of the bus himself, which causes him to sustain horrific injuries that completely alter his face to the point of non-recognition.
Given his condition, he is rushed to Seattle Grace as a “John Doe.” George eventually dies with no proper identification. Meredith is the one to discover his identity as he uses his fingers to write “007” on her palm, a nickname given to him by his friends before he dies. Not only was George’s death difficult for Meredith, but the fact that it was relayed to her in such a shocking manner only made it worse.
