I was volunteering for a non-profit for three years until I was asked to join the board a few months ago. The Exec. Director and I work very well together. The board comprises of his parents and a sibling. All I generally get along with exception with the sibling. Mother of the ED have worked on personal projects together and those ended in disasters. Things fell apart after joining the board. The intense conflict and drama stressed me out to the point where the interactions with these people triggered anxiety attacks, loss of appetite, and cardiac symptoms. The conflicts triggered a cardiac event which required a hospital stay. I got into a heated e-mail exchange with the mother of the Exec Dir who sits on the board (I took her comments on my work too personally). My professional composure failed and I made a personal attack on her. Then notified the ED that I will be resigning. Since the ED is a close friend, I agreed to stay on long enough to get their new website redesigned.
Now one of the Board members is extremely angry at me and refuses to communicate with me. She tried to coerce an apology out of me when I was not ready to give an apology because I was still angry at her. I've made several attempts to rebuild bridges over the past weeks. But she won't return my calls. Instead it appears that she's using my friendship with the ED as a bargaining chip to getting what she wants. This as adversely affected my friendship. Given these tactics and her willingness to go the nuclear option, I fear that I will be sued. In an attempt to repair the relationship with that Board member, I left a rather humiliating apology on her voicemail where I expressed self-hatred. The relationship didn't improve but has escalated where she sends e-mails with an aggressive tone using the ED's e-mail account. This caused a severe strain on the relationship between my friend and myself.
I handed off my last deliverable last Thursday. Someone misplaced it and I was blamed for not meeting the deliverable date. It's supposed to be their problem because they're migrating the site off a server I run. As that Board member migrates the site to a new webhost and runs in to problems, I fear getting more demanding e-mails and calls. And a potential law suit.
I just want my piece of mind back and put this behind me. What should I do to handle this situation better? Should I hire a professional conflict mediation to help that Board member and myself address our conflicts in an attempt to mend fences? Should I stop responding to their calls and e-mails with risk of losing a good friendship? Should I be hiring a lawyer and channel communications between me and the other party?