Hardly gloating.  Helping, actually.  Their views resulted in some distance between us, but they remain friends and I am there for them when I can be.

But in the spirit of Scrooge, they have come to face the circumstances they all too often mocked and attributed to laziness or poor planning.  
There, but for the grace of God,  etc...
They "get it" now. Not through compassion but through hardship.