The Portal: Portal-ity Thoughts

My mother-in-law once told me her 50's were her favorite.  I should have had a clue when on the morning of my 50th birthday, my previous German Shepherd, Sarge, had the worst case of diarrhea I'd ever seen.  In the house!  With people coming over for a meal.  I'm sure glad we can't see the future.  It's not always bright.  I won't say my fifties have been my least favorite, because of my grandkids, but they have been the hardest and most painful years of my life. Six years later, and we've lost our son John to the opioid epidemic, my Dad and I, along with my mother-in-law all hang out at the cancer center, and it definitely has not been butterflies, unicorns, and rainbows.  I have a standing joke with a friend - I type in "uni" on my phone and this comes up:  🦋🦄🌈.  It reminds me that while life is not all butterflies, unicorns, and rainbows, people prefer it when it is.  We have a natural human instinct to look for the good, to try an...

Today's blog is brought to you by our daughter, Kaitlin. She wrote it at 2 a.m. Y ou might want to grab a tissue. Ever wonder what it’s like being  in a dead kid’s house? I do.  It’s empty.  There’s an empty seat at the table.  There’s an unused bedroom.  There’s an empty spot on the couch.  There are uneaten snacks in the cupboards.  There’s less laundry to do.  Everywhere you look, something has been affected by the dead kid’s absence.  Usually, there are lots of pictures of the dead kid. Reminders of the memories that were made. The sad thing is that during those times, you have no idea you’re making “memories.” You simply feel that you’re living your daily life in an ordinary way. Then one day, the kid dies and you realize that those ordinary days become some of the most precious times you can hold on to.  You frantically search for videos so you can remember the dead kid’s voice because...