.... and i'm not talking about "widowed life" in the way you might think.
Before Greg died, I was that odd, nerdy, walking factorioum that could remember every appointment I had, every phone number I needed, every card number that I may be asked to use, every birthday, every task, every thing.
In. My. Head.
The events of That Day will never be forgotten, but I have large gaps in memory for weeks and weeks afterwards.
I
walked around in a fog for months. Like I was separated from the world
by a hazy curtain that never lifted. Like I was staring in my own
movie.
Clouded. Fuzzy. Detached.
But since That Day, my head has never bean the same again.
I forget meetings and details. I forget birthdays. I forget to return phonecalls and e-mails. I forget what I went to the shop to buy. I forget my own phone number. I forget parties. I forget family events. I forget so many things.
....and because I only ever wrote things into a diary or calendar so other people would have a copy of events, I never really got into the habit of using one. So I forget to write things into my diary.
It sucks.
I feel so embarrassed when even my fail-safe phone alert for meetings fails and I miss something important.
I hate it when I manage to remember something important for days in advance then forget it at the last minute. The crucial minute.
I hate it when I have to be reminded of something that seems such a basic thing to remember ... and yet I have forgotten its very existence until that point in time.
People say its "old age" or "it happens to us all" or "you seem fine" or "what are you complaining about - I've always had to write everything down or I forget".
But its not "just" any of those things. This happened virtually overnight. ...and over a particular night where my brain was required to process information that it will never be able to make sense of.
My brain changed the way it stores information That Day, and it hasn't recovered.
....and I wonder if I am the only person who has found this to be true.....
We write about widowhood as we live it. Together we examine the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of life as a widowed person. The views expressed here are those held by each individual author. We take no credit for their brillance; we just provide them with a forum for expressing their widowed journey in words that are uniquely their own.
Showing posts with label PTSD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PTSD. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Never the same again
Labels:
Amanda,
brain function,
brain. memory loss,
memory,
PTSD
Thursday, July 4, 2013
If we only knew
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| Our baby boy, due November 30 |
I have worked really hard to not think about my fears of losing Steve while pregnant. I've tried to be deliberate about keeping my mind on positive things. When I first found out, I couldn't sleep for a few days. It has subsided for the most part, but lately, I've found that the anxiety is creeping in again.
Each week I get closer to 26 weeks (which is the day that Jeremy died), I find myself gripping my chest, praying that God would spare me the pain of deja vu. I also remember a little more clearly details about my last few weeks of pregnancy with Jeremy alive the further I get along. Today, I've been thinking a lot about our last 4th of July together - watching the fireworks with his hand on my belly and smiling at the awestruck expressions of our children. Tonight, I can't help but think of the irony to be back in that place....but in a completely different way.
What it made me realize is that there's a reason we don't know our future ahead of time. If someone showed me the outline of life 5 years ago....I would have run screaming in the other direction. Yet here I stand, embracing experiences that hurt me in the past, learning to trust again, allowing wounds to re-open and heal properly. It's bittersweet, and yet I'm learning so much about myself as I go.
If I only knew....I probably wouldn't be where I am today.
I guess that's the point of trusting the journey.
Labels:
4th of july,
deja vu,
Jeremy King,
PTSD,
trust,
Veronica King
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Unlocked...

Two nights ago, I lay down to sleep and cried for an hour straight.
I haven't cried that hard for some time now.
I haven't felt the immense unfairness of my loss so hard for ages.
That bewilderment that he SHOULD be here, but isn't.
....and I went back to that locked room in my brain.
The room that contains the memories from of that afternoon when I found out that Greg had died 5 hours earlier.
I turned the key.
I unlocked that door.
...and was swamped by the intense grief as that pitiful wraith in my head was unleashed,
her screaming ... no
.... her keening howls drowning all other thought
drowning all other feeling.
Her shrieks so loud that I am not entirely sure that my head can contain them.
I know her screams too well.
Her screams are the echo of mine from that day that is forever etched into my mind.
They are the ones that came from my every pore when the policeman tried to tell me that Greg had not survived the accident.
They are the screams that started that day and which have never really stopped.
Most of the time, the door is locked and those screams are muffled.
Most of the time, the screams are quiet. Whispered screams....
Most of the time, things are OK.
But sometimes, I revisit that day and it knocks me down.
....yet I know that each time I am knocked down, I get up again,
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