Did you ever wonder what would happen to you if you were ever gone? Every single time I see one of those fundraisers in memory of someone, it always makes me think of it.
I wonder if anyone would do that for me.
If anyone would show up at my memorial.
If anyone would miss me.
I think it is because I feel like the memories of B are slipping away. The boys and I are left hanging on to the few memories we had of him that were tangible....but the memories are becoming foggier and foggier. The dates are becoming less and less clear. The countdowns are stopping. The offers of company are drying up, if they haven't stopped already. I am moving forward with a new person in my life. Does this mean that the opportunities for help have missed their window?
I always wondered how that worked. Why one tragedy is so much worse than another. Why the loss of one life is somehow deemed less worthy than that of another. Why there is no more "village" to rally around grieving families. Why are the grieving left to find their own way now, to forge their own path? I'm finding the lack of community support profoundly disturbing. Have we really all become so absorbed in our own lives that we can't reach out to those who need help?
I've even checked into the local hospitals to see if there are bereavement groups for widows. Do you know that they actually have an age limit? There are one or two kids groups, maybe a tween/teen group, and groups that you must be over the age of 45 to join.
Yep, 45.
So what about those of us in the 20-45 age range? There are quite a few of us. Husbands and wives whose married lives never really got started. Never really thought about life insurance. Never got to buy that dream house or family car or plan a family Disney vacation. Never celebrated a 5 year anniversary. Or a 10 year anniversary. Most of us with kids and this whole new falling apart life and no support? Well, in the midst of our grieving for at least one (more if you have kids), figuring out how to run a household, trying to solo parent, and still work/go to school, we have to try to go it alone.
Forgotten about.
Left to go on with our lives because we can "handle it".
To be perfectly frank, some of us can and some of us can't. Some of us pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and go on. We sob in our cars, or locked in the bathroom where no one can see or hear us, then we pull ourselves together and go about our day. Others of us sit alone in our big empty beds, wishing and hoping that there was something else, some other reality where this huge giant bomb that just went off in our lives doesn't exist. It is for these fellow widow brothers and sisters that I will create support where there is none.
I will make my mark so that you know that you aren't forgotten about.
I will set an example and hope people will follow.
I will, so I can for just one fleeting moment, feel like I will be remembered for something.
What will you do to be remembered?
