Being a Parent
When a child is very ill
The face of my daughter-in-law is not the face I’ve seen regularly since my son was fortunate enough to marry this lovely girl, going back to that unimaginable smile of their wedding day, when I presided over the marriage, her face when holding a newborn child, her first, ‘our boy’ she happily declared, and only outshone when a baby girl was presented to us three months ago.
That was the smile of achievement.
Children cause pain, not of their choosing, but because they are loved so much.
Today, as mom and dad watch over their baby girl the smiles are not bright, they bear the unrest. Parent’s nerves stretched to breaking point. There is for them both, the impending exhaustion of unrest, faces that lack expression. It is the love of parents for their family, missing the older child now staying with grandparents.
The Missouri weather has arrived with a vicious snap of winter’s teeth, making roads too dangerous to go back and forth to the hospital.
The tormented spirit of parents who wonder if the nurses and doctors are doing enough for their child.
My daughter-in-law speaks to nurses impatiently — “That’s what I’m telling you! Don’t I know? I gave birth to this child.”
The doctors and nurses are calmly non-reactive, reassuring. They know the anguish, understand it, and don’t dismiss it. They understand that it is not only the child in difficulty.
Adrienne Beaumont, The Sturg, Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles, Trisha Faye, Karen Schwartz, Nancy Oglesby, Katie Michaelson, Bernie Pullen, Michelle Jimerson Morris, Amy, Julia A. Keirns, Pamela Oglesby, Tina, Pat Romito LaPointe, Brandon Ellrich, Misty Rae, Karen Hoffman, Susie Winfield, Vincent Pisano, Marlene Samuels, Ray Day, Randy Pulley, Michael Rhodes, Lu Skerdoo, Pluto Wolnosci 🟣, Paula Shablo, Bruce Coulter, Ellen Baker, Kelley Murphy, Leigh-Anne Dennison, Patricia Timmermans, Keeley Schroder, James Michael Wilkinson, Whye Waite, John Hansen, Trudy Van Buskirk, | Dixie Dodd | Joanie Adams — Sightseer; Conjurer Of Words | Adda Maria | Dennett | Men.21times@gmail.com | Nancy Santos | Jenny Blue | Jack Herlocker | Love | Barbara J. Martin | Audrey Clifford | Maria Rattray | Jerry Dwyer | Denise Shelton | Trisha Faye | StorySculptress | Katherine Myrestad | Deborah Joyce Goodwin (Red:The-Lady In Blue) | Kelly Corinne Elliott
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