The Month that was just too much

I hope that this isn’t any kind of portent for my trip to London next week.

The week prior one friend was dealing with the loss of her home and belongings by fire.

I went home and spent some quality time with the parents and dropped off my cats for some time with the grandparents while I’m away. Had a good time, and, as usual, wished I had more time to spend there.

Then on my first day back at work, found out that another in our group of friends at work had experienced tragedy. Her brother’s wife died in a car accident on Easter Sunday. She had just found out recently she was expecting a baby – welcome news as they had been trying awhile. Our friend at work is also expecting, due in about six weeks, so the family was expecting the next generation would be close in age. They are all, obviously, torn up over it. A group of us from the office went over at lunch on Tuesday to pay our respects as a show of support for our friend, who is an awesome person and deserves it. None of us had met her sister-in-law. Our friend turned out to be at the doctor’s office in regards to her pending birth. The short version of the story is that she’s now on bed rest for the foreseeable future, possibly up until the birth. It was a strange experience. The family seemed to appreciate us stopping by, genuinely. For me, it was just disturbing. I haven’t been in a habit of going to funerals and viewings if I could avoid it, nevermind for a complete stranger. I can count on a hand how many. And there I stood a few feet away from the body of someone who was a few years younger than me. I’d never even been at hand for someone near my age bracket before. It’s not like I discovered my mortality. I think I understood that long before many in my cohort. Maybe I would have had more fun if I had not, but it’s been there for years. But this was staring into the face of the random chaos that is life. This can happen anytime. You will not expect it.

I don’t see me doing this again very soon… I didn’t want to see my own grandmother when she passed away last year. Extending that courtesy to strangers may be a little premature….