The conversation occurred some time ago. It started out, as so many things do, after I cracked a joke. I ran some quick math on the odds of our offspring having blue eyes, and I told the woman I barely knew about how gorgeous our babies were going to be.
Silly and ironic because I knew she didn’t like children and certainly didn’t want any of her own.
I didn’t know, though, that she’d been pregnant before. I didn’t know that years before, at age 19, she had finally visited the doctor after weeks of feeling sick. I didn’t know that the doctor had told her that she was 24 weeks along but that the fetus was tremendously underdeveloped and would never make it. I didn’t know that she believes that she’ll never be able to carry a child to term.
She told me all of this in the span of about 45 seconds. She was detached and almost clinical about it and I felt a nearly overwhelming wave of sympathy for her and was rendered nearly speechless that she would open up like that.
Of course, I’m never really rendered speechless. I said a word or two and let her change the subject.
I sometimes forget how much baggage people have… how many obstacles have been put in their way and challenges they’ve had to overcome. I forget until they tell me.
Gambling and drug addictions. Deaths of close relatives. Years of tension and even abuse from family members.
Life throws so many things at us, and we are all changed and shaped by those things. I respect and even love the people that have shared things with me and I hope that I have the same strength that you all have when push comes to shove.
No comments:
Post a Comment