This is exactly why making decisions like she did is so difficult. Because people judge you and are angry at you just because you are different and you don't want what they want.

I am sure that you had some big difficulties in your life and you achieved your goal anyway - it must have been very hard and I admire you for that. But you should try to understand her - her problems are very different than yours but I can imagine that those might be even harder to deal with.