in a heartbeat

Hi Sister,

Halloween is gone and we are sliding into my favorite holiday - Thanksgiving. I love celebrating something as ancient as a harvest festival.  I love the simplicity of no decorations, no gifts, just time together.

My daughter has surgery on Friday. My neighbor told me two years ago, when she had the first surgery, that she would need one more surgery, then everything would be fine. So I have been expecting this. But my baby is getting nervous. I don't blame her.

I will have her baby from the end of work on Friday, until Sunday evening, so Mama can have a few days of ice and rest.  I know it is a little too long for the babe, but she will be okay.

My daughter's boyfriend's father has three rentals on the property where my daughter lives.  She and her family live in the downstairs apartment of a house.  A young couple moved in upstairs this weekend.  Yesterday the young man committed suicide.

My daughter is feeling unsettled. She is wondering if she had been friendlier, would it be different?  I suggested she start being friendlier in honor of this young man.

He had just found out his girlfriend was pregnant.

He was younger than my daughter.

He was too young to know life puts tough situations in front of us, but also gives us doors and windows for others to help, and for us to get a break. He was too young to know it would be okay.

He was too young.

So, why do some of us want to survive no matter what, and some of us just give up when life presents something that seems unsolvable.

My daughter was also angry that this young man is gone, and he left a young woman alone with a baby to face the trauma of his death, as well as life with a baby. He left her father-in-law traumatized, because he found the body.  He left my daughter unsettled, because he killed himself in her house.  He affected a lot of people, and then he's gone...

I told her we are all feeling a little unsettled because when death comes that close to us, it reminds us to look at our life and see the good that surrounds us. Because a brush with death also reminds us that everything can change in a heartbeat!

In gratitude,

And with love and hugs,

Clare