I'm very sorry to hear about your friends. That's totally heartbreaking about the friend's mom. My BFF lost her mom just last month to breast cancer and we are 32 and it was devastating to her. My uncle lost his wife, my cousin's were I believe 10 and 7 at the time. Cancer sucks.
Jenn, I am so sorry to hear about your high school friend and the friend who has breast cancer for a second time (as a breast cancer survivor myself, I know it must be devastating to her to have it again).
Did you try the "bulk" uploader on photo bucket? I did this with my pictures last night and they all uploaded perfectly.
I'm sorry to hear about the two bad news.
About Photobucket, it seems to like to upload your photos the way they originally were, not the way you might have arranged them in a folder on your computer. What I did is I first separated them into days, so there would be less uploading at once. Then every time you upload a day, when you open the window where you choose all the photo, click the "date taken" icon once (or twice) and it will rearrange your photos that way. Then you select them all and click upload. Hope this trick works for you!
I am very sorry to hear about your friend that passed and your other friend being diagnosed again with cancer
You take your time. No worries