How to Ease on Down the Long Road Home (in 3 Not So Easy Steps)

Photo by Matt Palmer on Unsplash

I’ve experience trauma, tragedy, and unhappiness in my life; however, nothing prepared me for this. What began as a journey in rediscovering love and selfless parenting at a later stage of life quickly turned into a nightmare.

Hoping you read my first blog, Rediscovering Love and Fearless Parenting Later in Life (Who Wouldn’t Want a Second Chance?). If you haven’t, you can go here:

The journey down the long road home began with the cautious words of his surgeon, “I can only tell you he’s alive.”

With his phone and wallet in hand, I began calling family and friends during the surgery. It was harrowing. I didn’t really know any of them well. Short, passing acquaintances and here I am delivering the news to their beloved mother, mother and father-in-law, brother, sister, and so many others that he might not make it through the night. While patience was never my finer suit, I did have diplomacy down. Or did I?

Little did I know how the next three years would unfold. Three steps I instinctively took while hanging on to my heart and hoping not to fall over the side of a great big mountain …

#1 — I called “Meme,” the kid’s beloved grandmother, rock and center of the family, a woman I had never met. This woman accepted me with a simple graciousness that taught me the true meaning of…