A Chapter Closed

The closing for the sale of my childhood home since 1977 was slated for 3:00 today. Over the last 34 years. I have moved in and out of that house 5 times. I initially moved in back in 1977 in the summer of my 7th grade year. The house was big enough that my whole family lived there. My Mom and Dad, my sister and my maternal grandparents all in the same house. At that time Gayton Forest seemed like "the country." Truthfully, there wasn't much past that neighborhood but woods. If you know the Short Pump area at all now, that seems inconceivable. I spent my high school days in that house. So many firsts, first date, first dance, first high school party, and my first kiss in the front foyer. I got engaged in that house, lost my first baby to miscarriage and was elated when I found out that I was pregnant again, all in that house. It was a shelter in the time of storm when at 34 I found myself with no money, no job and no car after my husband of 15 years left and I had two tiny girls to raise alone. My parents opened up the basement apartment so that we were not left on the street. My girls spent most of their childhood there and they were incredibly fortunate to be able to spend so much time with both of their grandparents and their great grandmother all in that house. Birthdays, and Christmases, and Thanksgivings and Halloweens have been spent inside those walls. Today that chapter closes in my life and the house's life. Tomorrow a new family will start a new chapter in "my" house. I wish for them all the things that made that house a home to me.

Where does the time go?

19 years ago I was traveling early in the morning to St. Mary's hospital. I wasn't injured. I hadn't been in an accident. My first baby was 2 1/2 weeks past due, and I was going to be induced. I was bound and determined to have this baby naturally ( A.k.a. NO DRUGS) That was until I realized that being induced meant hard labor right away, no gradual ease into the major labor pains. I dealt with it the best I could for 7 hours, but then when I was told I wasn't progressing at all, natural childbirth went out the window. GIVE ME AN EPIDURAL!!!! Even after that, labor still went on for another 6 hours and I still didn't progress. On top of that, the labor was stressing my little baby, and the heart rate kept dropping. Induction was stopped, and I ended up having a C-section. We had decided we didn't want to know the sex of the baby. We wanted to be surprised, and I was sure I was having a boy. In the delivery room as I felt extreme pressure as the doctors pushed and prodded to get the baby out, I thought, what are they doing? The doctor kept saying, "He's a big one! He's a big one...whoops, she's a big one." At 8:16 PM my little baby girl was born. Healthy, 9 1/2 pounds and amazing.
Today she turns 19 and, thank God, she is still healthy, a little bigger than 9 1/2 pounds but more amazing than I ever could have imagined or wished she could be. She is talented, and beautiful, and caring and I couldn't ask for a better daughter if I had placed an order. She is a grown up, and it's hard for me to believe. It's also hard for me to let go, but I'm learning. She is my friend and many times in her 19 years she has been my savior. She believes in me, she encourages me and she never gives up on me. I am so blessed when many parents have either no relationship or worse yet a terrible relationship with their daughter, I have a friend. Happy birthday my sweet girl!

Not your normal Anniversary!

Today is a very special day. It is an anniversary, of sorts, but not the kind where you go out to dinner and celebrate and have cake and balloons. It is a somber occasion. Today marks 10 years since America was attacked by terrorists. Yes, I said attacked, right here on our soil, not some distant far off land that only exists on our television screens on CNN.  Why were we attacked? That's the funny thing. There is no reason. We did not provoke the attack in any way. We did not "start it" as a child might say after being confronted by a parent when asked why he hit his brother or sister. Were we at war? No. Was it some strategic military base that held secret weapons or plans and seen as a threat and therefore destroyed? No. The people attacked that day were ordinary, everyday, people just like you and me who were in the right place at the wrong time. They had started the day just like any other Tuesday by going to work or starting their shift of rescue or fire or police or boarding a plane for business or vacation, but oh how the day would end. Some of those people would survive and live to tell their amazing story. Most would not. There will be many posts today and articles and documentaries talking about 9/11 and what happened that day. I am going to choose to talk about two groups of people that, in the face of incredible danger, and without thought for their own selves did what had to be done. I am talking about the teams of firefighters, rescue and police and the passengers aboard United Flight 93.
1. The First Responders
No one was prepared for what would unfold when they got up that morning 10 years ago. None of us were. But when it did happen, these brave men and women rushed to do their job, and many lost their lives for it. This was not a routine, all in a days work call. Many of us were glued to the television in the safety of our homes, and thanking God that we were not anywhere near what was going on. Sitting there afraid of what would happen next when they were right in the middle of it saving lives and giving the help that was needed. Where would we have been without them? They are our heroes everyday, but this day they were superheroes. Sadly, unlike superheroes, they were not indestructible, and we lost so many. God bless them all!
2. The Passengers of United Flight 93
That Tuesday started out routine for them as well. They boarded a plane in Newark, NJ bound for San Francisco, CA. Maybe some were traveling for business as they had done a thousand times before. Perhaps some were headed to see the Golden Gate Bridge or Fisherman's Wharf on their first vacation to the west coast. It turned out to be the last time they would ever fly anywhere because 4 other people boarded that plane with them that had other things besides business trips and vacations on their minds. It is believed that those 4 men intended to hijack and fly the plane into the Capitol Building in Washington, DC. However, the passengers, in this age of technology, were able to call loved ones and others on the ground and were told of the horrors that had already taken place. They voted to rush the cockpit and make sure this suicide mission of evil would not succeed. Ordinary people stepped up and acted in an extraordinary manner, and again, became unlikely heroes. Not what they intended that day, to be sure, but nevertheless, their bravery kept at least one plane from reaching it's destination at the cost of their lives. God bless them all!
I hope that none of us will ever have to face such dangerous times again, but if we do, I hope that we will find in ourselves, somewhere the amazing courage all of them showed that day.