At Least Bram is Cheery
Bram
Originally uploaded by auntie_m.
We went to my parents' house over Labor Day, and besides our normal Labor Day festivities (the state fair, for one) I took my sister's baby's one-year photos. While she was changing outfits (that girl has more clothes than me and I'm not exaggerating. She only wears each outfit twice. She the most well-dressed baby anywhere!) I snapped a few of my grubby little Brammers who was very happy to comply. He's a cutie with some serious hair.
It's been sad around our neighborhood of late. We had a funeral last Saturday of a 25-year-old man in our neighborhood who shot himself. I'm not sure of the whole story, but he was intoxicated at the time. It's so sad. The family is not really a church-going family, but I do know one of their daughters as she would come to our church activities and girls' camp with us as well. It's so sad.
Two weeks before that one of my good friends here (my first friend in this neighborhood, in fact) passed away from liver failure due to complications from breast cancer. She's had breast cancer for three years and it seemed like it was never good news, and in the end she died. It's literally almost impossible to believe. She was so healthy--a master's degree in fitness and was a PE teacher, plus she was a star college basketball player and still played a lot and stayed in great shape. She would run six miles a day during chemo and radiation! She was in her late forties and left behind five kids and a husband. The family is devastated. Our church ward is devastated. Our neighborhood at large is devastated. She had so many people who loved her.
I've lost several people in my life--all my grandparents, an aunt, older friends, etc., but Shannon's death hit me hard. For one thing, it's just so sad that I won't see her again in this life. As Latter-day Saints we don't believe that this life is the end, and so I know that I will see her again, but it's just so sad that all the things I do here she will no longer be a part of. We weren't best friends but we were good friends and she was literally involved in all the same things as me--PTA at our kids' school, our book club, church, etc. She even lived one street down from me and so her house is the view I see if I look down from my kitchen window. She was so much a part of my life. I saw her daily and sometimes multiple times at our various places--she was just one of those people who walks the same paths I do and so we were not only friends because she's cool but friends because of that. I didn't see my grandparents a ton, so I was used to missing them, used to seeing them only sporadically. I miss them a lot at times when I would normally see them--holidays, family events, etc. And they're my grandparents, so they've been a part of most of my most important milestones and loved me in ways a family member does. Shannon has left a hole in my daily life.
But her loss is felt so strongly in her family that I can hardly claim to know how they feel or even imagine what their loss feels like. She has a 16-year-old daughter who will never have a mom for those times you just need one. Her husband is so devastated. Her four boys put on an act (cause they're teen boys) but you know they're suffering. Luckily they have lived here for 17 years and so they have a great support system and many people who love them. But in the end, she's still gone.
It's been a hard summer. Another of my good friends was diagnosed with breast cancer and she is very young, just a few years older than me. She's doing treatment right now. A lady down the street who had breast cancer in the past few years has had a re-occurrence in the form of a brain tumor. Everyone in my church ward is emotionally drained, but so giving and willing to help and support these ladies and their families. We're strong together.
It is the best of times, it is the worst of times.