It Should Have Been a Great Week

My sweet son

It should have been a great week… and in many ways, it was. My local Sisters in Crime chapter had a wonderful book signing event at Barnes and Noble, my family and friends made me feel very loved and appreciated on my birthday, and my husband and I put our Christmas tree up and got all of our holiday decorations out, some of which are so tacky they’re hilarious. And did I mention that Senator Warnock won his election and Brittney Griner came home?

All good news. But none felt like it mattered much when my younger son called to tell us the news that he’d been let go from his new job, the one he’d been so excited about. “I thought they really liked me,” he lamented.

All I could think about was, “Can’t my son catch a break?” In the last few months, he lost a basketball coaching job he loved, nearly died from a bad fall climbing a mountain in Mexico, and now this!

Honestly, I think my son is handling the news better than I am, using our family’s go-to remedy for all horrible and unexpected things—humor. “Now Mom,” he said, “this doesn’t even make the top two of the bad things that have happened to me this year.”

True. And my dear husband pitched in by recounting stories of all the various jobs he’d been fired from before landing in one where he stuck. “Face it,” he said to our son, “we’re lousy at working for other people.”

I know our son will find his way. He has an amazing, supportive wife and loving family. And he’s persevered through a lot of tough stuff.

But you know? No matter how old my children get, I still hurt so much when they’re hurt. My mom used to say that “old age isn’t for sissies.” I feel that way about parenting.

Our only choice is to keep moving forward and praying for better days ahead.

 

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