I recently heard this on a TV Drama where one character, who had been left at the altar by her fiance, finally spoke to him again years after the incident.
I thought that the phrase:
"You were the best thing that never happened to me"
could be interpreted in two ways:
- The "best thing" refers to their successful relationship before he left her at the altar, and the "never happened" refers to how their marriage never happened.
- The sentence means that of all the things that "never happened" (i.e them getting married) it was the "best thing" for her and she is glad things turned out that way.
Essentially if this were to have been said to someone, do you think it would be taken as a compliment reminiscing on what they once had, or an insult in saying that they are glad that something further never happened?
If you would like to take an alternative approach to the question, is the opposite of this phrase:
- You were the worst thing that ever happened to me
- You were the best thing that ever happened to me
Cheers!