...... I still cry really, really hard.
Sometimes ...... I cannot seem to stop.
Not often.
Not any more.
But sometimes.
Last night four of my kids and I went to see Tom Hank's new play, "Lucky Guy". We were so excited to be seeing him, an actor we've all enjoyed thoroughly over the years.
It was good.
Mostly.
It was a true story ...... about a New York reporter who made quite a name for himself back in the 80's and early 90's.
This man is no longer alive, and that was brought out in the play.
He had survived a horrifying car crash, only to die of cancer a few years later.
My tears started flowing when his wife said something like this:
"We had been through so much. SO much. When you go through so much and survive, you think that the rest of life will be easier. It should be easier."
I cry now as I type those words, because damnit, that's what I believed.
We'd been through so much.
The year 2001 was a year that will always live in infamy for me.
Of course ...... it pales in comparison to 2007. Now.
If I'd only known.
Anyway, the end of 2001 ushered in not only 9/11 but a huge upheaval in the industry Jim worked. Huge.
He had worked for one firm since we graduated from college. Twenty years. A life time ...... for some.
Twenty years tossed into the wind after the end of 2001.
He/we were blessed. He was great at what he did and so had no problem finding another firm who wanted to add him to their roster. But still ...... twenty years of working and making friendships and seeing the same people every year at the Christmas party and other get-togethers. Twenty years of sharing stories of raising our children and watching families grow and watching children grow up.
Twenty years disappearing right before our eyes.
And, during our Thanksgiving vacation to his parents' farm in 2001, he was target shooting and the gun blew apart ...... into his face. Fortunately, I was with him that one and only time. I was able to drive us back to the farm to get his dad and head to the hospital.
He lost his eye.
But thankfully nothing worse. Pieces of the gun came close to entering his brain.
All he lost ...... was his eye.
As one can imagine, it was a very difficult loss. And a very difficult recovery. All I could think, over and over again, was "If we can just make it to the one year mark, things will be so much better."
And we did.
He went through so much.
And then he died.
And I wondered what the hell was the point of all of that.
Really, God ...... what was the freakin' point?!
I'll never know. Just as I'll never know why he had to die.
And I've come to peace with that. Because I know this: even if God himself came down and told me exactly why Jim had to die ...... the reason would not be good enough for me. Ever.
And so I don't ask anymore.
But ...... he went through so much.
We went through so much.
One would think that the rest of life would be ...... should be ...... easier.
One would be wrong.
