July 15 2019

After six weeks of my nose and cheek being hidden, and although the surgeon told me “You’re good to go,” I didn’t feel that way at all. My face was red and swollen and I felt badly about walking back into the world looking that way. The bandages definitely attracted attention in public, but it felt harder to show myself as I now was bandage-free. Life goes on, how do you?

I went home and that evening my husband, John, and I were taking dinner to our daughter, Jess, who was a lifeguard at Welch Pool at the time. We pulled up in front of the pool and I said to John, “I can’t do this.” I wasn’t ready to go out before others. John took the meal in and we drove away. When we got home, I went up to my favorite spot in our house and looked at the mountain range. Our son, James, knew I was upset and came to see me. James asked me to drive him to swim practice that night.

As we drove to the pool, James said, “I bet you’re wondering why I asked you to drive me tonight. It’s because I wanted to talk to you. You’re grieving now and that is a good thing because you’ll learn even more about grief to help the people with your work.” To be continued next week…