There's this woman I work with, Sally. She's actually a traveling nurse, which means that she's signed with a company who pretty much provides her with contracts that range for about 4 to 6 months to work in one hospital. It's actually a pretty sweet deal: you get to move around a lot and you're likely never going to get bored...ever.
But it's definitely one of those types of occupations that fit only a certain type of person. You can't, for example, have plans to settle down with children. It's pretty hard to move around with kids and making them change schools on a regular basis. Which was something that I asked Sally about since, after all, she'd clearly been doing this for a long time, and she seemed like such a fun and loving woman that I could believe that she hadn't had children already.
...And then I found out that her daughter would be turning 16 this weekend...if she hadn't drowned in a pool when she was 5.
The way that Sally spoke about her daughter, how it was clearly something that was so traumatic that she managed to overcome, was an eye-opener. Losing a child, after you've gotten to know them, after you've gotten to a point where you start to wonder about the kind of person your child will become, I can't imagine how you can live beyond that. It wasn't so much that she was looking "okay," but that she was so open with how she managed to get to this point where she didn't walk around everywhere wanting to cry and die every other day.
Sally said she found life in God and in prayer. And while I know my losses haven't been as great as hers nor my faith as unshakeable and deep...I am humbled by her strength.
Written 5/27/11
Thursday, May 26, 2011
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