May 12, 2013
Make A Wish
Being a Mother isn’t always easy, even under the best of circumstances. I know some pretty amazing Mothers. Many, who have had to be Mothers in ways they never imagined.
Mothers who fight for a better life for their child with special needs or medial conditions.
Mothers who take care of both their child/ren, and a spouse with an illness or disability.
Mothers who have had to face giving birth alone.
Mothers who have faced the death of their child, or dreams of being a Mother seem to have died.
I know some Fathers, who have had to take on the roll of Mother as well, following the death of their spouse.
And, Mothers who have had to take on the roll of Father as well.
* * * * *
My Mother has watched me suffer in ways she never would have wished, and felt helpless. Elias’ Mother, lost her oldest son at far too young an age.
Becoming a Mother was without a doubt, the greatest moment of my life. And, I got to do it twice. My girls, are without a doubt, the greatest joys of my life.
Sitting on the couch, awake all night four years ago, facing the unthinkable task of trying to figure out how exactly I was going to tell my girls that their Daddy had died, was one of the darkest times of my life (the darkest, clearly, having occurred immediately prior). I had no idea how to breathe any more, let alone manage our family – alone.
Since then, I have faced some pretty big challenges as a Mother. There are moments I’m far less than proud of. There are moments that have hurt more than I can even share.
I’ve held my girls as they cried for their Daddy. I’ve witnessed their pain and felt that helplessness. I’ve listened to their dandelion wishes, candle wishes, ‘if I caught a leprechaun’ wishes, all to have their Daddy back.
But, I’ve had some pretty damn proud moments as a Mother too. And, my girls – our girls – are amazing. Beyond amazing. I won’t even try to put it into words at the moment. I love them to bits and never stop telling them so. Never stop making sure they feel it. That they feel enough love, as if from two parents.
* * * * *
I foggily recall my first Mother’s Day after Elias died . . . we had just left for the cruise that he was supposed to be on with us on (his parents, mine, and his grandma, along with the girls and I), and I had to leave dinner early as I thought I was going to be sick.
As I am looking at my 5th without him now, there is more joy in our house, and in our hearts now than there was at that time 4yrs ago. It’s still not always easy. I still miss him every day. We all do. Greatly.
It’s always going to be bittersweet. Big moments and celebrations will always still come with that ache.
And, moments (like what happened in my living room just now that I can’t even explain . . . ) that could be so little and insignificant, or I could read into it a message from him, and it brings me to my knees in instant tears.
* * * * *
I’m incredibly thankful to the Moms I know who support me on my journey. Who encourage me, listen, advise, help, and set an amazing example of Motherhood. I’m forever thankful to my Mom, who does so, so much for the girls and I, every day.
I know plenty of Mom’s whose Mother’s Day wish is to be able to go to the bathroom alone, to have an uninterrupted phone conversation, to sleep in – those are my kind of wishes often too!
To all those amazing Mothers out there (and to those who are missing their Mothers, or never got the chance to be one), this day, and every day, I make a wish for you. I wish that you know your strength. Own it. I see it, every day. Doubt creeps in so easily, and so often . . . I wish it goes away as easily as it comes.
Though I know I can’t wish away the waves of grief or despair any more than my girls’ wishes for their Daddy to come back will be answered, I wish that you will continue to get up faster each time, and they come less frequently.
And, whoever is missing from your life, or whatever struggles you are facing, I wish you peace, comfort, joy, and love.
~Chelsea
P.S. I Love You
March 6, 2013
4 – 8
Grief can do such funny things to your brain.
In some ways, it feels like it’s changed the wiring around in there. Things you once wouldn’t imagine worrying about, wouldn’t even have thought about in the past, all of a sudden mean the world. Things that used to drive you crazy, you now miss and crave. And, some things that used to worry you, no longer do.
Of course, much of this is linked to the person you lost. Along with realizations of what is important in life.
Numbers, and in particular time, can take on a whole new meaning as well.
Tomorrow, my oldest ‘baby’ will be turning 8. She is a marvel to me. Wicked smart, precocious, would read ALL day if you let her. She loves to laugh, is caring, loving, compassionate, silly. She can be quite shy at times (though not when it comes to performing on stage!), too hard on herself at times, easily unnerved, but she is filled with more courage and strength than she knows. She has so many of the wonderful qualities and features her Daddy had, and she loves to try and smile like him. She’s graceful and kind. She’s been through so, very much in her short life. I could go on – even though there just aren’t enough words.
I feel SO lucky to be her Mama, and I try to tell her so every day. Along with how loved she is – by both her Mama AND her Daddy…
March 2009
Last Day of 7
Eight is a big number – she wants to get her ears pierced! – and it also holds a great deal of meaning to me, and as I found out recently, to her as well.
‘Almost’ four years ago, I couldn’t imagine even getting to this point. In those early days of grief, my newly wired brain did a lot of computing. Numbers, dates, time. Along with tracking the days that had passed since Elias died, I thought about dates in the future that I couldn’t imagine even getting to, let alone surviving.
The date Caia lived longer without her Daddy than with him has long since passed. The date I’d lived in the house longer without Elias than with him now too, among many others. And, though I’ve survived more than I thought I ever would, though I stopped counting in days some time ago, and will even stretch to give it to you in months, there are still some dates and ‘milestones’ that take my breath away.
In those early days of grief, I remember thinking of the point where Eibhlin would have lived longer without her Daddy than with him – and with it, the date I’d have parented longer alone than with him. It seemed impossibly far away. I seriously questioned whether I’d ever even make it that far. Though, as her eighth birthday approaches, so does that date. I guess the impossible, wasn’t.
Unfortunately, though I haven’t voiced out loud to her how tough this one is for me, it seems she’s taken note as well. As I mentioned before, the girls have been hit by their own grief more in the past couple of months, and one night recently, as Eibhlin was in tears, she said to me, “I’m almost 8, and I was only 4 when Daddy died!” Not hard math, even for an 8yr old, but I guess I hadn’t realized she would look at it that way as well. She has spent half her life without her Daddy.
Of course, the actual date won’t be until just after the 4th ‘anniversary’ of his death in April, but the birthday still hits home (though, any birthday for either girl without their Daddy here still just doesn’t seem right . . . )
I don’t want to go too ‘over the top’ to compensate, but I think her ears will get pierced (and I just may get my nose pierced along with her!), and though I generally stay away from anything too ‘commercial’ for my girls, we will have a fun Harry Potter themed birthday party (her new favourite book series), complete with ButterBeer, wand making, and more (and, perhaps I ‘did’ go a little crazy on the invites, especially considering we only sent out 6!)
And, most of all, I will celebrate this amazing, beautiful little girl of mine (who is growing up so very fast).
Me and my Girl
Just the thought of how much I love her brings tears of joy to my eyes….
~C~
P.S. I Love You
February 26, 2013
Sometimes . . .
Good things DO happen to good people.
I have a number of other things I’ve been wanting to write about. January/February has been such a blur it seems – the girls started the year struggling like never before with their grief, I’ve been trying to decide on the idea of moving my store, spent a few weeks short on staff . . . but, there was some happy news for a friend of mine recently, and I wanted to share.
This is a friend I’ve never actually met in person. A ‘widda’ friend. Someone I’d written about here before, as she had been going through an extremely difficult time. She only ever asked a few of us for some good ‘juju’ along the way, but we could see more was needed – so we did what we could for her, from behind our computers, from our hearts, and with the help of our kind hearted readers as well. And it turned out right. When I wrote, many of you out there offered help in the form of good thoughts, prayers, and even financial support. And, I wanted to write again today, because that help HAS made a difference. A very good difference. An important difference.
It’s been a long road for Cadi. An extremely difficult road – at times almost too difficult to continue the struggle for what she knew was right. And she still faces the challenge of raising a little girl who will never know her father, alongside her own grief of losing a man she loved.
But recently, a few great things came together for her as she needed them to. Things for Cadi and her daughter are looking so much brighter. Her perseverance, her kind heart and compassion for others involved (so amazing), and her willingness to struggle for what she knew was right for their daughter is nothing short of inspirational.
And I was beyond proud to be a part of that little group of widdas who all ‘virtually’ cheered her on, and celebrated how far she has come with her this week. Cadi is a beautiful person, a loving Mama and SO deserving of this good news.
I know she has plans to pay it forward. I also know how incredibly grateful she is to those that offered help in whatever form it came – I know how deeply it touched her, and this is the other reason I wanted to share the news. How do you begin to say thank you? Well, my post will be a start, to my readers.
Thank you. And wishes of plenty of good karma and ‘juju’ your way, just as it came to Cadi.
And, my thanks again to Cadi for the gift of a couple of beautiful, and well loved felted bunnies that my girlies have enjoyed so greatly . . .
It’s so, very nice, when good things happen to good people.
~C~
P.S. I Love You
January 1, 2013
For You
17yrs ago this night you walked into my life . . . despite it all, because of it all, and in a heartbeat . . .
And, I plan to write more about the night soon, but for now I’ll share this . . .
Even though we met on New Years, and shared the next 13 together, this is one of the very few (and blurry, thanks to a drunk friend) photos of us together on New Years (many were spent in the kitchen of one of the restaurants you would have been working countless hours at that day/night). I believe this photo is from 1999, and you barely made it to me ‘just’ before the stroke of midnight . . .
And now – though still not exactly always ‘easy’, I can look at this photo and others like it, smile, and wonder how I ever got to be so lucky.
Happy New Years, My Love,
~Chelsea
P.S. I Love You
December 25, 2012
Christmas is here again . . .
This used to be one of my favourite Christmas songs:
Christmas is here again, stand up and cheer again Let’s leave our heartaches and sorrows behind All that I want is to be here beside you, all that I need is right here in my arms All that I want is to know that you love me, and this will be my finest Christmas timeI’ve shared it with the girls now and then, as I can hug them in my arms and feel the words ring true – but it has still been a tough one (among SO many others) to listen to these past few years.
Four.
This is our fourth Christmas without Elias. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to fathom it. As each year passes I think it will still come as a shock.
I tried so much harder this year to feel more of the Christmas spirit. I tried to not let the pain hit quite as deeply. And, in some ways I actually managed. Reminding myself how the days leading up are so often worse and attempting to shake that off helped a little. Being ridiculously busy at work definitely helped a lot – even if only to make me too tired to even think about much else than how tired I was (though, I can’t complain much about that, as I need it to be busy! but, I ran myself pretty ragged . . . )
We did an activity advent calendar again this year – or, at least we tried to. As things often go with me, I didn’t ‘quite’ get it out on time. By the time I got organized enough to even start, it was December 9th and we had some serious catching up to do! We had a (rare, and what would be my last) store free day and I wanted to dedicate it completely to the girls and ‘winter/christmas’ activities. I stayed up late the night before trying to clean, start a few decorations, and get organized for the day so as not to lose time – it felt so worth it when I heard the girls’ excitement when they woke up . . . that is, until I heard them decide that elves must have done all that hard work. Damn elves got all the credit! Ah well, the magic in it for them was worth it in the end.
We had a really great day – snowman pancakes, candy cane doughnuts, trekked out to the woods and cut down our own tree, peppermint hot chocolate (a few food related ones it seems . . .), Santa visit, etc. It was busy, but we had a LOT of fun (though, I ‘almost’ fell apart when driving back with our tree and that song ‘Christmas Shoes’ came on the radio . . . .).
As I put the girls to bed that night, I felt good about all we had done, and the fun we had in it all. I hopped in the shower and was just thinking about how proud Elias would be. Standing with my hands on my hips and the water as hot as I could bear on my back, I smiled, and felt him smiling back. I whispered words in my head to him, felt his love in my heart, and imagined his answers.
Then, as I almost literally felt his arms go through mine and wrap around my waist to hug me, felt him kiss my cheek and whisper in my ear how proud he was, I lost it. Completely.
One second, standing proud with a smile on my face, the next fighting to stay standing and coughing out tears in a magnitude I haven’t faced in some time. And, I just. couldn’t. stop.
I don’t know how long it went, but once the water faded from hot to warm, I knew cold would be coming soon and I finally forced myself to turn it off and grab my towel. As I buried my face in it with tears still coming, I suddenly heard Eibhlin at the door. She was bringing me something from her bedroom – she hadn’t fallen asleep yet – though she hand’t heard me crying.
She realized pretty quickly when she saw me, however, that I had been. She asked what was wrong. Nothing like this to snap you back out of it all – but I just told her that I was thinking about Daddy. About how proud I knew he was of us and what a great day we had, but that also made me miss him a lot as well, and I was feeling sad from missing him. She then asked if I could snuggle with her some more. Of course I did. She let me know that she misses him a lot too.
From then on, the last two weeks were incredibly busy. My parents were away for part of it, so I was looking after their dogs as well, the girls had their Christmas concert at school, Eibhlin performed two numbers in a local telethon fundraiser, dentist appointments, skating day at school (another moment in which Elias would have both laughed hysterically and been incredibly proud as it was Caia’s first time on ice, and after spending the first few minutes screaming, she ended up doing great), along with spending at least part of every. single. day. at the store.
I’ve felt Elias’ presence around in many other ways as well. Sometimes it feels as if he’s just trying to slap me in the face to remind me that he’s still here. Guiding me to things I needed to see. To things I was thinking about finding, but not even looking for. Messing with my lights. I was even completely floored with a visit from an old friend of his family’s today – an amazing, beautiful woman who sang at his funeral. I hadn’t seen her since, but had been thinking of her just the other day – wondering if there was a recording of when she sang – and in she walked.
Still, as I sit here after Christmas Eve dinner with my parents and my sisters family (which I am SO happy about since it’s been quite a while since we’ve had Christmas with them) and looking forward to spending the day with them tomorrow, the fact that Elias is not here still just hurts so, very much. Beyond words. No matter how much I can feel his presence or how much Christmas spirit I can muster . . .
The girls wrote messages/drew pictures to Daddy, which we put in his stocking tonight, as we have done each year without him. They love doing it and it’s always been a positive activity for them – though as Caia was drawing her picture (of Daddy as an angel) I heard her simply say ‘All I want for Christmas is Daddy back’. Heart breaking. But, I also understand the sentiment.
We will have fun with my family tomorrow. I’m hoping we will ichat with both of Elias’ brothers and their families tomorrow too. And, we will miss Elias. Deeply.
* * * * *
Merry Christmas, My Love.
~Chelsea
P.S. I Love You
November 7, 2012
Bailouts
Another thing I’ve had to get used to in the past few years . . . the need to be ‘bailed out’ by others.
No, I haven’t ended up in jail at all (yet! who knows what this crazy life might bring) – just tricky situations or unexpected hiccups that I can’t take care of without friends and/or family jumping in to help – usually last minute.
Asking for help is not always easy (well, pretty much never easy for me), but at times there aren’t many other options. Another thing that is frustrating about being an ‘only parent’ as I wrote about in my last post.
Recently I had a day off (from the store) where I was trying to get stuff done. Dog nails clipped, wood pellets delivered, car service and new tires, mixed in with my weekly treat of a pilates class, and hopes to clear up some (frighteningly behind) bookkeeping for the store.
The day started with a big, teary drop off at kindergarten for Caia*. That made me a little late to meet my friend at the house who was to clip the dog’s nails. Thankfully my mom was meeting us there with her dogs, so they were able to get started without me. Things smoothed out for a bit, tea with my friend, off to pilates class, then back home to wait for the pellet delivery and get a little work done.
I called to find out when they were coming (as time passed and I was getting a bit anxious), and of course (after initially saying I wasn’t even on the schedule) they told me it would be around 2pm, which is ‘exactly’ when I needed to be dropping my car off for servicing (as I had told them on the phone when I ordered the pellets). Along with this, I called the store to check on my very pregnant employee, and I could tell she was not feeling well. Not wanting her to have to stay working, I started trying to figure out how to get my pellets delivered, my car to the tire place, my kids picked up from school, and cover off the store so she wouldn’t have to work.
Thankfully, my other employee had stopped by the store to see how she was doing as well, and offered to stay until I could get there (which also required her to ask her mom to pick up her son from school . . . ) - bailout #1
Then, my mom (who was also not feeling great, mind you) came to my house to wait for the pellet delivery, so I could get my car up to the service station – bailout #2
My pregnant employees partner works at the place I needed to take my car, so he said he could drive me down to the school to get my girls (then he would take the car back for the work to be done) so I could walk them to my house, where my mom could then drive us up to the store – bailout #3
Of course, when went to drop off my car, they only had 3 of the 4 tires I needed, so I was only able to get the service done and had to arrange for the tires to be done next week. Grrr.
As I got to the school to pick up the girls, my friend Sian offered to drive the girls and I back up to the store so my mom could just go home – bailout #4
And, my employee’s partner brought the car back to me at the store at 5pm when I was off work, so then I could drive back with him to pay for the service done. Thankfully the tire place is only a few mins from my work, and of course he was ok doing this as it meant his very pregnant partner was able to get the rest from work (and I know they do this for other customers too, so it’s not entirely unusual).
Just trying to sort it all out was exhausting – within this there were MANY phone calls back and forth to see who could do what and when and how to make it all work.
This past week added more when, one of the days Caia had a teary, hour long drop off at school which made me almost late for work, and therefore no time to make lunch, so a ‘favour’ was asked (one of my employees who had stopped by the store) to pick me up lunch. The next day, I went to the store expecting to be there just for an hour, had Caia in tow, no food for lunch – and turned out needing to be there for the whole day as both my employees were sick. As such, my mom picked up lunch for Caia and I, took her for a few hours, picked up Eibhlin from school and got her to dance class. As my employees were both off for the rest of the week, that meant a little extra child care there too, and another favour from my pregnant employees partner to pick up and drop off my car once again so the tires could finally be done.
I am BEYOND thankful for the people who step up to help (and I’m grateful to know they are willing, and usually happy to), and no one makes me feel like a burden – but ‘I’ certainly feel like it at times. It’s still hard to know that you can’t manage without. And, it definitely makes it more difficult to ask for any ‘extra’ help with other types of things that I just could do myself, and especially for childcare for something that just may be fun (gasp at the thought!). These last two could also be covered by paying someone – like lawn mowing, gutter cleaning, babysitting for example – but on a variable income and being a ‘tightwad’ as is, this just doesn’t happen either.
I also wish I could return the favour more often. I certainly try to help out when I can, and perhaps one day I will be able to do more, or will pay it forward. And, in reality that was a rough stretch – and though they do happen more often than I’d like – thankfully in our ‘day-to-day’ with no unexpected bumps I’ve managed to work a schedule where we don’t need as much help (at least with childcare/transportation issues), but we still need to call on my mom a few hours a week regardless, and have some friends who help out when they are away.
And, just as important, I have my friends who may not live near by, but are my ‘virtual’ sources of a bail out. When the pain of missing Elias just hits harder than usual (or the frustration of this life in general), their understanding and comfort bails me out once more, and I can return to the ‘regular’ grief that I have learned to manage in the usual ‘day-to-day’.
(of course there are others who live near by who do this too, only usually by phone . .. .)
Both groups are incredibly valuable to me. Both groups have helped me to function through this season of my life. They have helped me to get this far – though I’m not sure exactly where that ‘far’ is. . . .
I suppose I should give myself ‘some’ credit for getting myself there too, but this is to thank those who are my bail bondsmen and women. Both near and far.
~Chelsea
P.S. I Love You
*I haven’t written much about it yet, but transition to kindergarten has not exactly been easy for Caia and I. I’m not taking her 100% of the time as I just don’t feel that is what is best for her or us, but even part-time has had it’s challenges (and with one staff member having just left for maternity leave, we need to up another day….). And, as I’m not someone to leave her screaming and in tears at the classroom door, I will stay until I’m confident she feels comfortable with me leaving. Much of this has come under question as well (also part of the frustration in my last post), but we’re just trying to find what works best for us. Her grief has been hitting much harder in the past few months (since just before school started) and I’ve recently set her up with a counsellor at school in hopes to help. And we keep on keepin’ on.
October 24, 2012
Frustrated
Holy, it’s been a while . . .
Since school and dance has all started up again, the busyness continues. We also had a wonderful visit from Elias’ youngest brother and his family, along with my Mom taking the girls and I on a little trip to Disneyland!
I am just as far behind on reading blogs as I am on writing mine, but so it goes I suppose.
I am feeling some frustration at the moment, and guess I just waned to get it ‘out’ though.
One of the things I find so incredibly, horribly difficult about being an ‘only’ parent, is lack of support that you can only really get from a spouse when it comes to decision making, ESPECIALLY when it comes to the kids.
I know that sometimes coming to the same decision with another parent can be equally as frustrating (at least I think I vaguely remember this?) but Elias and I were so often on the same page with things in the few years we were able to ‘co-parent’, that it was always pretty easy. And, whatever decisions we made together, I had him to back me up on when talking about it with anyone else.
Home-births. Vaccinations. Vegetarianism. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Now that it’s all on my shoulders, it’s extremely difficult. I am IT. I know there are some benefits to this as well. I always get my way*! But, I liked having someone to bounce things off of. Someone who had as deep a stake in it as I did. Someone who it meant as much to.
Of course there are other people in my life now who love my girls incredibly. I know they mean a lot to other people. But, it’s still different, and the end decision is still solely mine. AND, when people disagree with me, I don’t have that person to back me up. I don’t even have that person to at least vent to when people disagree. I think I also spend more time second guessing myself and/or trying to justify myself because I’m alone in it (and a lot of what I go on is by how I ‘feel’ in my heart/gut which can also be more difficult to explain . . .)
I know all my decisions aren’t ‘popular’. I know I don’t always go with expectations of society (which I think is where much of the difficulty comes from). But I also think I know my kids and myself well enough to know what is best for us as a family. I like to think that somewhere, Elias is ok with the decisions I’ve made. That he is silently backing me up.
I just wish he could find a way to tell all of us that. It may not make others agree with me, but at least I’d know I’m not alone in it all. . . .
(as a note – this was written extremely quickly and without re-reading it to edit/proof/whatever or else I figured I’d never get it posted – so hopefully it makes sense and isn’t grammatically too terrible!)
(*and, all this said, I think it would be EXTREMELY difficult to ever then have to transition back to having to make decisions WITH someone again – though I gather for the first ‘ever’ when it relates to the kids, it will still be me . . .and, there would have to be someone for that to actually happen with . . . )
~C~
P.S. I Love you
September 15, 2012
Dreams
They sure have a way of messing with you sometimes.
I’ve had some good dreams with Elias in them. Some great ones (so great I question if it was just a dream).
Of course, some not so great ones too. And, some just awful.
Recently, I had a dream where I discovered that he really had never died after all. At first, I was a little ticked at him – “How could you let me think you were dead for almost 3 1/2 yrs!!! Do you know how f’ing hard this has been!?!?!” but then, I was just too happy to see him again to be mad (he also had some interesting excuse that he had to as he was on the run or something from some bad guys, then I believe we were on the run together).
Last night though, was one of the awful ones. Really, really awful. Painful. I woke up at 3am, could hardly swallow because my mouth was so dry. Breathing hard. Heart racing out of my chest. I’ve had images from the dream flashing in my mind throughout the day.
And now, I can’t seem to convince myself to go to sleep.
I tried to go to bed at a decent time (for me). I have to be up early to take a ferry. I’m really excited for tomorrow . . . I’ve been looking forward to it for a while now, as we’ll be seeing Elias’ youngest brother and his wife for the first time since the funeral, and meeting their two daughters for the first time. I’m exhausted. I need sleep. But that dream is haunting me.
I’m trying to release my fears. Deep breaths. Wipe the tears away. Let the pain in my heart subside. Tonight, along with the dream, there is just more missing.
I’m sure if I stare at my computer for long enough, eventually sleep will come. In the mean time, this song came to mind and seems to fit in some ways . . . though not in others.
~Chelsea
P.S. I Love You
August 23, 2012
At This Moment
It has been a whirlwind of a summer.
Company coming and going, little trips for the girls and I. Big steps. Work. Home. Exhaustion. Fun. Hurt. Hugs. Tears. Smiles. Pain. Joy. Grief. Love.
At this moment, in the other room Eibhlin is quietly reading. Caia is in dress-up clothes, humming to herself and playing quietly.
In this room, the dishwasher is humming and I’m sitting with a mug of hot chocolate.
The last two days have been a little on the rough side, so I need to take these little moments of peace and soak them in.
Soon we’ll be off to grocery shop, the bank, check in on the store, paperwork, etc. The little cloud and rain that started the day is slowly giving away to the sun breaking through once again.
In comes Caia with a self made connect-the-dots for me to fill in.
She asks how to spell Daddy, practices writing it, and is working on drawing pictures of him.
Life rolls on.
~Chelsea
P.S. I Love You
May 30, 2012
Thank You
I wanted to thank those of you who commented on my last post . . . I thought about writing a response to each one individually, but I know sometimes I can be slow at checking back to see if there was a response (or sometimes forget to completely), and I wanted to be sure you each knew that I appreciated it.
Karen – I certainly recall your messages and following along with Issac’s story through Caringbridge. I’ve popped in from time to time to check in, and I keep him in my thoughts all the time. I followed a few other children I had come across in my research, and when I would share with Elias what I was reading on those sites it would always upset him so . . . he didn’t like the fact that he was going through it of course, but he felt like he could come to some sort of acceptance with it – it made him so angry that a child had to deal with the same. I thank you for continually following along and keeping us in your heart and am happy to hear from you here =).
Megan – I loved the post you shared, thank you. I can certainly feel bits of it that hit home. And to both you and Deb, thanks for understanding the raw, confusing in-between stage and sending peace <3
Mel – I love what you said about the way we are choosing to live as the ultimate ‘letter’ to Elias . . . thinking of it that way really does help. So beautiful. And so true. Sometimes it feels almost ‘blasphemous’ to write about the ‘happy’ in this one place that has been such an outlet for the opposite . . . but I know that’s what Elias wanted for me, for us, more than anything in this world. It’s hard to think that people may feel as if I’ve ‘moved on’ or no longer grieve – but I suppose that is not something I can or should try to worry about.
JJ – I’m glad to know that the entries have inspired you, showing how life continues on despite intense grief. That is by no means a hinderance! That is one thing I’ve always hoped in this space, is that if I can help even ‘one’ person, then my loss is lessened. Thank you for sharing that.
And Candice – I don’t know if I realized that you started your blog at 3yrs out! Yours was one of the first I found after being widowed and I recall reading back some, but in the early ‘fog’ it probably didn’t register. I absolutely agree with what you say on the difference between the facebook day to day and a blog. And you are also bang-on about how there are those ‘shifts’ in dealing with various issues this far out – but they are still extremely difficult and harder to explain. This is why I love my widdad peeps so much!
I know I will continue to write. I’m feeling somewhat more comfortable about keeping it in ‘this space’, but that’s still up for more thought. It doesn’t ‘feel’ the same as a general ‘day to day’ type space . . . we’ll see. But thanks again for all the great feedback and support. It means more than you could know!
~Chelsea
(oh, and I have NO idea how I ended up with 35 spam comments on that one . . . but I found it funny that one read, ‘Great Job! Keep Functioning!’ and found it oddly appropriate none the less)
P.S. I Love You
