My husband's second oldest sister, until 2007 when the oldest died of heat stroke in the Grand Canyon. Laura was the first to welcome me into the family back in 1982 and was a friendly, social woman with a great sense of humor and a painful honest streak. Life with Laura has been anything but kind but she stays strangely innocent. Her only child, born when she was 16, was killed in a train crash when he was 32. His children moved a long ways away, so she never sees her grandchildren, and she fights depression and chronic pain. I remember the warm woman I first met, but my sons don't. They love Laura but remember her as grumpy and rude. This picture is far younger than they ever knew her, but makes me realize how quickly life can knock some people down.
Very sad in some ways. Some people seem to have such a heavy load to bear. I'm glad you have a rounded picture of her though- and understand why she is what she is now as well.
There is someone in my life who is grumpy and rude. I have consciously tried to remember the other person I knew so well before chronic illness worked its evil. Weird overlays of past and present occur. Chronic pain, though, is all consuming and incomprehensible to those not suffering.
@francoise isn't that the truth. I've been lucky, even in my worst pain to always have the confidence that I would "get better". I can only imagine how defeated it would feel to think of your body as a trap you can't escape
December 21st, 2015
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