Unexpected Connections: The instant bond of parent loss

Happy Sunday!

I’m home from Myrtle Beach and having a bad-TV-movies and jammies night. I’ve already watched Must Love Dogs and Failure to Launch. Oh, and did I mention I ate take-out Thai? In some ways, this is the best kind of night.

My trip to Myrtle Beach to help with the marathon was hard work but also relaxing. Getting 70-degree weather and warm sunshine can do amazing things for the soul. I was also really proud of my friend Jes, who walked the half-marathon, and for Team Prevention’s 100+ readers who walked the half- or full-marathon. Big congrats to everyone!

I didn’t walk this year (maybe next year!), but I did reach a different kind of milestone. While chatting with a coworker during the trip, she revealed to me that her father passed away six months ago. We shared a really nice moment remembering our parents, talking about their lives and deaths, and appreciating how being together made us feel less alone.

“It really does get easier,” I told her, the words sounding wrong as soon as I said them. After all, when everyone told that to me, I didn’t believe them. Only later, when I had healed more, did I understand that what they said was true.

I just wish that as someone who went through loss, I had a more sincere-sounding phrase. I guess those cliche sayings are actually the most true, though, and that’s why they’ve been said so many times by so many people.

So tonight I’m wishing good thoughts for my new friend, and to all of you, who are also my new friends. Now back to TV ; )