Cora's Story: Dog Days of Summer

Last weekend, Ben went away to an extended family reunion. Reggie and I weren't really up for meeting hundreds of strangers at a time, so we stayed behind.

Ben just happened to pick one of the hottest weekends of the year, so Reggie and I stayed inside and beat the heat with our favorite, ice cream!

I was worried about being alone for the whole weekend. Being alone can make the loneliness of grief much worse. Reggie kept me occupied though. We read a good book. Poor Reggie, he needs reading glasses.

And Ben's brother, Johnny, came over to keep us company and to check up on us.

I'm always surprised when something I thought would be hard, like Ben being away for the weekend, isn't as awful as I thought. Of course, I missed him, but I dealt with it okay. But, sometimes something I give no thought can have me in a fit of tears, like yesterday walking through the grocery store and seeing diapers at the end of an aisle, I nearly lost it.

I learned two important lessons this weekend. Reggie may be a bit spoiled, and I can learn to walk again. I can't get over Cora's death. I'll never heal. But, I can learn to live with it. Eventually. When I'm ready to start walking.