The phrase "a friend was suffering" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when describing a situation where a friend is experiencing pain, distress, or hardship.
Example: "I felt helpless as I watched a friend was suffering from a serious illness."
Alternatives: "a friend was in pain" or "a friend was struggling".
Which of course is a character's prerogative - except that it was a niggle I had with The Tennis Partner as well: Verghese was recklessly honest about his feelings and vulnerabilities, but there might have been a bit more sympathy for what his friend was suffering.
What my teary friend was suffering from was a sudden outbreak of empty nest syndrome.
He dismisses the notion that his friend is suffering with a back problem.
But shouldn't I also understand that my best friend is suffering from a real disorder, sexual addiction?
As soon as you suspect that your friend is suffering from depression, you should encourage him or her to see a doctor.
Telling yourself that it's your fault that your best friend is suffering from depression because you haven't spent enough time with her, or that it's your fault your son has been falling behind in school because you've been a bad mother is your way of trying to deal with a sad situation.
Not only was Ella suffering, but one of her best friends was suffering, and that's important too.
The fact that I assumed that many successful friends were suffering a 5am start in order to let their tennis instructors shag them standing up behind the vending machine says much about why I am not Sheryl Sandberg or Condoleezza Rice.
One woman Kirchheimer interviewed, a psychiatrist, jokingly diagnosed the affliction from which she and her other single friends were suffering as "withering womb syndrome".
How could they celebrate the holidays when so many of their friends were suffering?
