Monday, November 23, 2009

Growing Up

It is the kind of growing up that you wish you could keep your kids from....


Death

Sophie has had more than enough experience after the death of her Grandmother almost two years ago. But she has learned and has become kinder, I hope.

Today we found out that one of her classmates, a girl on her basketball and volleyball team lost her Dad after a year long-ish bout with cancer.

I got the notice this morning after I got back from my errands. I saw him less than two weeks ago. At basketball. Cheering on his girl. Samantha had no better fan. She was the apple of her Daddy's eye.

And now he is gone. And this young girl... and the friends that love her are lost. Being that they are so young, just 13 and 14, I weep for them. No one should have to face this kind of reality at 13. But life doesn't work that way. Sadly, it comes at you the way it comes.

Luckily, I know that Soph and her friends will be there for Samantha. Two girls were with her last night during that long vigil. And what I can tell you is that as a girl in a situation similar to Samantha's? I know that everything that her friends have done for her will be remembered. To the girls that stayed with her last night? She will never forget them, even if in the future they drift apart. They will be in her heart. For the basketball coach, who worked to distract Sam, from her sorrow over the last couple of weeks? You will never know what it means to forget the pain for a couple of hours. It is a blessing that not everyone gets. For the girls (and boy) from her class that are working so hard to surround Samantha with love? I know that when my brother died when I was an older (and hopefully wiser) girl, I took huge comfort from these friends. Friends who allowed me to be miserable and cry and also let me laugh and not feel guilty about it. Girls and boys who had never been to a wake and sucked it up for me.

I wish these kids didn't have to suffer or to learn about grief and loss. Unfortunately, this is beyond my control.

Death is a part of life.

Whether we want it or not.

To the Cid Family? I am so sorry, and you will be in my thoughts and prayers. May God bless you.

my banana bread seems so paltry an offering....