The Week in Review
It’s been a tough week.
Not just for me, but for a lot of people I know.
As last week began, I had just completed a series of tributes to some special people in my life who had died. I loved writing the tributes, because I loved the people about whom I was writing.
But I won’t kid you. It was grueling work, mostly because of the raw emotions involved. I cried at some point while writing each tribute–relax, it’s what I do–and I heard from many people who cried too, after the tributes were published. Old memories had been stirred up, along with the pain attached thereto.
I’d decided it was high time for some levity. I mean, I’ve heard from plenty of people who’ve said my blog is ”difficult” for them because “it’s too sad.” So I try to stay balanced, to the extent that I can.
Along that line, I had several “lighter” entries planned, stuff designed to keep readers from doing the Monty Python thing. (You know, “run away!”)
I was just about to publish an entry I’d completed a bit earlier, a sort of bio entry about my life. The bio was to run in conjunction with Ken Raymond’s “chapter two” newspaper story. Thereafter, I would start work on the lighter topics.
I was about to post the bio on my blog last Monday when tragedy struck. A 44 year old mother and friend of my family had a sudden heart attack, possibly the result of a blood clot. She was fighting for her life.
It felt silly and insensitive to start work on the lighter material while my friend and her family were in limbo. Besides, I wasn’t exactly in a funny mood, to put it mildly. So I decided to hold off.
She died on Monday night.
So the next day, after posting the bio entry, which itself seemed wholly unimportant, I ditched my plans to work on the lighter entries. Instead, I spent the rest of the week writing and thinking about our friend who had died. I tried to keep it tasteful and brief, knowing her family had not asked to be thrust into a spotlight.
Although the tragedy was ”not about me,” it had so many haunting parallels. A person dies in her middle forties. Kids left behind, still in high school. Grieving parents. Siblings trying their best to find their way.
For me, attending the funeral was something akin to Huckleberry Finn hiding in the back and watching his. I mean I saw many of my own friends there. I watched people I love struggling through their grief. And I felt the awful permanence of it all.
Like I said, it was a tough week.
But a new week dawns, and I will now turn to some of my lighter entries. Not because I’ve moved on, mind you.
No, it’s because we could probably all use a little humor right now.
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