Today is my girl's birthday. She is celebrating it in Paris with her love, and by the looks of it, having a grand time. I love that for her. For them. They've been sharing pictures and videos of their adventures with the fam at the end of each day, and it's been such a treat for us all. The famous attractions and citiscapes are fabulous but it's the pics of the two of them that I swoon over. Here are some of my faves.
She looks happy. And that's really all I need.
___________
Thank you for the kind comments in response to my low mood yesterday. I'm a lot better today, though the haircut still looks wacky. Later in the day, I realized my vapor of sadness wasn't really, truly about the hair (though it is going to be a challenge making myself show up in the world with this crazy cut). It started really with our son telling us the night before that his firehouse had been the first on the scene at LaGuardia Airport on Sunday evening after the Air Canada Express flight and the airport emergency vehicle crashed on the runway, and those two pilots died. My son and his crew were the first responders who had to cut those poor pilots out of the wreckage, and get the injured survivors to safety. It was a horrific scene, and I went to bed that night thinking about how hard some of my son's workdays are, and those pilots not making it home from their own regular workday, the fragility of our world, and then I couldn't sleep, and I got up at 3 AM and looked in the mirror, I looked so scalped and undefended, and when I climbed back into bed, and continued to lie awake, staring into the darkness, it just started to feel like so much, too much, and that's when I started to go under. But I'm okay now. I'm a mother. Mothers rally. Parents rally. We have children in the world. And so we do what we can to get back up each day and do the next indicated thing to make this place the best it can be. For them. In this moment, on my daughter's birthday, that lightworker of a girl, and my literal lifesaver of a son, I can think of no worthier cause.
Your daughter and her husband are truly the Beautiful People. Their light shines so brightly that anyone can see it.
ReplyDeleteOur children will always worry us. We want their lives to be perfect and easy and reflect how much they are loved and we can't make that so. It's a lesson we seem to have to learn over and over, isn't it? Your son's work is so very, very difficult and yet at the same time, infinitely necessary. I admire him a great deal and I admire you for being able to understand that this is the work he has chosen and is so good at.
The pain of heartbreak is immeasurable. Especially when it is the heartbreak of our children...adult though they may be. I feel for your son. For all those in that accident. One of my sons was a firefighter/first responder for a time when he was younger. First in our community (all volunteer) and then in DC before leaving to serve elsewhere. I remember him coming home late one night, barely touching my arm as I slept and just whispering, "Mom." I jumped out of bed and went with him to the living room as he told me about a car accident he had responded to that evening. A horrific one. It involved a former high school classmate who was decapitated in the accident. I just sat and listened. Held him while he cried. Like you with your son, my heart breaking for all concerned. Sometimes it is all we can do. But it never ever feels like enough. And then we try to find ways to cope with our own emotions. Sending loving thoughts to you and your family.
ReplyDeleteMary is so right about the light shining so brightly from those two. I feel for your son, when I was about 5 years old we lived on Staten Island. My dad was stationed at the army base there. There was a horrific mid air crash and he was assigned to recovery duties. I will never forget how that shook him to his core, even though he was in the Korean War. Even at that young age I understood how powerfully he was affected. Your son and all first responders are incredibly brave in spirit as well as body. I hope you’re feeling better and stronger every day.
ReplyDeleteXoxo
Barbara
What a happy way to celebrate her birthday! Your daughter and her husband look so lovely together.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you are feeling better and am so amazed at your brave son who does such important and difficult work. What a hero he is.
It's heartening to see that people still go to Paris just to love each other. For that, I agree, despite tragedy, despite struggles, let's all rally.
ReplyDeleteYour son has one tough job. I'm glad you're feeling better today.My second daughter turns 53 tomorrow. How does time pass so fast?
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday to your daughter! Sweet to witness the love she and her husband share.
ReplyDeleteSo many challenges accompanying the joys of life. So good to know that today you are feeling better than yesterday.
You have brave, beautiful children and they get some of that from you. I look upon those three AM can't sleep times as opportunities to pray and meditate. Happy Birthday to your girl!
ReplyDeleteYour wonderful children are a credit to you. To embrace life, to put your heart and soul into it, to share and to feel joy, such skills yountaught them.
ReplyDeleteWonderful photos of your girl and her beloved, they are so obviously happy. Glad you are feeling better. Your son has chosen a job that can be grisly at times but he does it with tenderness and care.
ReplyDeleteParis is looking good. Last time we were there was 2016, it was wet and cold and windy, but Jim needed to walk a lot to rehab from the ruptured Achilles. It did work, he quit walking like he had a peg leg. Sorry about the hair cut, it really does knock the wind out of a person. Glad you're better today.
ReplyDeleteThere are not enough words to describe the selflessness and courage of first responders like your son. They are the ones who run towards danger not away from it. They see things that the rest of us do not see. I hope he can recover from the horror he saw that night. I feel so bad for that young flight crew, just starting their lives and careers, there was nothing that they could have done to avoid that fire truck, there simply wasn't time. May they rest in peace.
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday baby girl- we never get sunshine up here so your face gave me enough to get through until May! Son is so good at his job- I wish he was not so that he could be a barista instead- something SAFE and less demanding. Jim Davis nailed it with his comment.
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday to your daughter. They look like they are having a wonderful time.
ReplyDeleteI hope that your son and the other first responders have access to trauma and grief counselling. I thought about him having to deal with those young men's bodies and it broke my heart. I have seen many dead bodies and wrapped them up for the morgue, but having to deal with a dead body at the scene of an accident would be horrific.
My dad was a firefighter and had to deal with a lot of plane crashes in the early sixties, I think he carried that for the rest of his life. I know that after we came back to Canada, he never got on a plane ever again.
Sending hugs sweetie.
Beautiful photos. Happy (belated) birthday to your daughter, and yes, I can see why your son's "close encounter" with that airline crash would have been unsettling. Such is the life of a first-responder, I suppose. I missed your haircut post -- off to read that now!
ReplyDelete