Can I say 'Apparently it was all for me'?

[Topstudent]

Hi, teachers. Is the underlined part of the statement OK to say or not natural at all?

"It was the doctor. He wanted to talk to me. So I showed up at the hospital, and then he appeared, wearing this very depressed expression. Apparently it was all for me. He asked me if I wanted to see him, but I declined. It might have seemed cold to him, but he didn't know that my dad had never ever been there for me."

Thanks in advance.

 

[SoothingDave]

Re: Can I say this?

What was all for you? What do you mean?

 

[Topstudent]

Re: Can I say this?

The doctor's depressed expression.

 

[GoesStation]

Re: Can I say this?

You need a few more words to make that clear.

Please include the source of any text you post on the forum. While your first sentence makes it pretty clear that you wrote the text, forum rules require you to make that explicit. For example, you could add "(Source: my own writing.)"

 

[Rover_KE]

Please note that I have changed your thread title.

Extract from the Posting Guidelines:

'Thread titles should include all or part of the word/phrase being discussed.'

 

[Tdol]

Could you mean that it was all over for you?

 

[Topstudent]

"Apparently it (the doctor's depressed expression) was all for me." (as my dad had just died)

Could I say "apparently it was all for me"? If not, could I say "apparently it was all for my sake"? Or what else could I say?

Thank you.

 

[GoesStation]

"Apparently it (the doctor's depressed expression) was all for me." (as my dad had just died)

Could I say "apparently it was all for me"? If not, could I say "apparently it was all for my sake"? Or what else could I say?

I'm not sure what you're trying to say. Do you mean that the doctor wasn't really depressed and was just putting on the expression to convey his sympathy?

 

[Tarheel]

You left important details out, forcing the reader to guess.

 

[Topstudent]

I'm not sure what you're trying to say. Do you mean that the doctor wasn't really depressed and was just putting on the expression to convey his sympathy?

Yes. That's what I'm trying to say. Thank you.

 

[jutfrank]

I think Apparently, it was all for me works fine in the context.

I think you should replace the word depressed with another one, though. Perhaps sombre.

 

[GoesStation]

The problem is that what "it" refers to isn't clear. Try this: … wearing this very somber expression — apparently just for me.

 

[Tdol]

"Apparently it (the doctor's depressed expression) was all for me." (as my dad had just died)

Could I say "apparently it was all for me"? If not, could I say "apparently it was all for my sake"? Or what else could I say?

Thank you.

It would be simpler to say that the doctor looked sad for you. The more words like apparently and all for me that you add, the more people might question how genuine the doctor's sadness was.