My conclusion was based on background knowledge of the individual's personality, habits, and my own thoughts on the different stages we progress though as humans at particular points in our life. My friend's, I feel, was based more on her perspective as a female, someone who lives in the U.S. but born abroad (similarities shared with the subject person). My friend was not as fortunate to have had close access to the person's personality, other than what she had heard second hand.
From the outset, I based my decision on an immediate gut feeling that this person's behavior had changed as a result of physical change, while my friend based her assumption on a host of other options such as summer travel plans, intrinsic motivations, and such. We had almost no way of verifying who was right or wrong, or if we were both right or both wrong. It became a waiting game of sorts.
Finally, just as the question seemed to have been answered in my friend's favor based on limited, but reasonable proof. I almost conceded defeat, but the proof as it presented itself seemed to be hiding the devil within the details of the evidence itself. I disputed the proof, and presented my concerns (as anyone who knows me knows I hate being wrong). It was then more than ever that the combination of subconscious and knowledge based intuition seemed to meld into one and make me all the more sure of my previous decision. My friend, on the other hand, considered the case closed, "match, set, point" in her favor. Mere days later, a similar but undeniable truth presented itself in the same format, but this time - proving me the victor.
Upon being shown the proof, my "antagonist" (the harshest term I could ever use to describe her in any context ....and I do so with a adoring smile), laughingly admitted astonishment in the utter defeat of her premise, but also in my own dogged determination to overlook the previous evidence and stuck to my guns despite what was seemingly undeniably proof to the contrary.
In shutting the case, we both were made happy. I was particularly overjoyed, because in ways - this had been an answer to a nagging question and my prayers all in one. The answer had brought each of us an immense amount of satisfaction and I want to point out that it wasn't so much in who was right or who was wrong. Instead, the answer in and of itself allowed both of us to reflect happily on the evolution of the person's life we had pondered on for several months. (You have to be in the loop to understand). Of course, I'm a bit narcissist about my gut instincts, and still like to say the gut is always to be trusted in whatever fashion it presents itself.