Sometimes I scroll through my own Facebook page, as I’m sure many (Someone? Anyone? Bueller?) of you do. And each time, I think, holy shit, my friends must think that therapy I’ve been going to on the reg for heading toward three years now isn’t helping much.
Because my Facebook page sure does seem… quirky. Here’s a sampling:
Funny post.
Funny post.
Post with a bunch of pics from some family thing.
Funny post.
Depressed post.
Funny post.
Depressed post.
Post with family pics.
Funny post.
Funny post.
Etc.
Seriously, *I* sometimes wonder if I’m possibly bipolar when I look at my own page. And I am not in any way, shape, or form minimizing individuals who truly live this disorder. Here’s one definition of bipolar struggles:
“Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks.
There are four basic types of bipolar disorder; all of them involve clear changes in mood, energy, and activity levels. These moods range from periods of extremely “up,” elated, and energized behavior (known as manic episodes) to very sad, “down,” or hopeless periods (known as depressive episodes). Less severe manic periods are known as hypomanic episodes.”
(taken from the National Institute of Mental Health website: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/bipolar-disorder/index.shtml)
For the record, this is a very serious disorder that can be managed with proper care and a hell of a lot of work on the diagnosed individual’s part. It is something people struggle with on a daily, sometimes minutely basis, and it is not to be taken lightly.
While my blog post will contain attempts at humor (because that’s how I deal with life’s challenges), that is exactly what it is: my attempts at dealing with the challenges that have turned my life upside down and sideways and backwards and perhaps you (hopefully) understand why I jest??
Okay, so let’s get back to my train of thought before I lose it….
Here’s what happened. I dragged those bins up from the basement. You know the ones. The ones that contain The Christmas Stuff.
Yeah, those bins.
Ornaments. Decorations. Stockings.
Memories.
Memories.
Memories.
Hang on – I need to go sob and then blow my nose; I’ll be back in a minute….
Okay, anyway, for those who have recently discovered the Tami Lund Show, back in 2016, my life, which was pretty steady and unencumbered by any real craziness, took a turn. Like a sharp, jarring, unexpected fork in the road turn.
Have you ever experienced that while in the car? Like, you’re driving along, daydreaming, doing all the right things (using your blinker, NOT succumbing to that ‘zipper’ bullshit, not being an asshole and cutting people off…), and all of a sudden the one-lane road you’re on just, well, ends.
Literally.
And you slam on the brakes and stare at the DEAD END sign and you think, What the fuck do I do now?
Yeah, that’s it. That’s what happened to my life on March 15, 2016.
That’s when my son died.
Just to put this blog post in perspective.
Anyway…
So back to the whole up and down issue. That’s exactly what happens when you experience grief. When someone close to you dies.
God forbid, your child. (If I could eliminate this club all together, that would be my greatest wish in the world. Fuck world peace; just don’t let any children die. And yeah, I get that this will also literally create world peace.)
One of your parents.
Your spouse.
Your sibling.
Your best friend. (Nope, sorry, you can’t go first…)
Anyone to whom you have an emotional attachment.
Anyone. It really doesn’t matter if they are blood related or a pet; if you are emotionally vested in that individual’s life, you will experience grief if they die before you do. That’s how it works.
And grief SUCKS.
Sorry, let me make that more clear:
S.U.C.K.S.
Grief. Sucks.
It’s the worst part of being human.
Not joking here.
It’s taking that DEAD END and turning it into a human being. (Or your pet, because I get it, peeps, I do. The dog who had been part of our family since almost exactly one year prior to my son’s birth went over that Rainbow Bridge only a few months before my son left us for that next world. I. Get. It.)
And here’s the part of grief they don’t tell you about (actually, they do, but when you’re in the throes, you can’t even imagine…): You carry on.
Life doesn’t give a flying fuck what you’re going through.
Blizzard. Hurricane. Tornado. Wild Fire.
Unexpected death.
Life carries on.
And if you’re part of it, you will too.
It sucks SO HARD in the beginning. I mean, you will want to curl up in a ball and just cry away the pain.
Or, more accurately, BRING THEM BACK.
But that’s not how life works.
Yes, yes, life is an asshole – let’s make that perfectly clear right now.
Life doesn’t give a shit.
You are the only one who can give a big enough shit to actually carry on through all the horrible, terrible, absolutely outrageous pain and heartache that you will be forced to endure.
Bonus that it wasn’t even of your own doing. It just happened to you. Not your choice.
And yet, now you get to figure out how to…deal.
So how does that happen, exactly?
Well, first off, there is no exact recipe.
Yeah, for you control freaks (like myself), get ready. This is a roller coaster that is not only about to derail, but it’s going to shoot you into the fucking stars and just when you think it’s all peaceful and shit, it’s going to yank you back to reality. And you’re going to blink rapidly and think, WTF? And then it’s going to jerk you around some more and twirl you seemingly endlessly for a few seconds (but they’ll feel like years, maybe even a lifetime or two or ten), and then drop you back into reality again.
And spin, repeat, continue…
Yeah. That’s grief. Over and over. Endless happy-sad-happy-sad-happy-sad-fuckimfeelingsadwhyisittakingsodamnlongtomoveon-happy-shithereitcomesagainhopefullyitsquickthistime-happy-happy-happy-happy-goddamnitreallywhyisthisstillsodamnhard-happy-happy-ifuckinghatelife-happy-happy-happy….
Will this ever end????
…
I really do hate to be the bearer, but, yeah, it’s what you think.
Nope.
It doesn’t end.
I mean, I don’t know for certain because it’s only been not-quite-three-years, but there are (unfortunately) plenty ahead of me who can attest: yeah, it doesn’t end.
Does it get easier?
Yes.
Not that ‘easier’ isn’t without its own trauma.
I remember, at some point in the last year, sitting on my therapist’s couch, sobbing almost hysterically, while I said, “I’m afraid I’m forgetting him.”
Why did I say such a thing? Because life had been going along all nice and peaceful and normal for an extended period of time, and I thought, hey, I’m getting the hang of this, this new life with my new three-person family, and like fireworks set off next to a dog, it hit me why I even had such thoughts and why they were so significant, and then I cried and thought, thank God I have a therapy appointment soon.
And you know what she said?
“Yep, this sucks. Grief sucks. Every single step sucks. But no matter what happens, how you figure out how to deal, you will never forget him.”
It’s just the “good” eventually outweighs the “bad.”
But the “bad” is still there. It’s a fucking smog, hovering over every single little thing you do. You can’t wipe it away. You can’t wish it away. It sucks, and it’s so. Hard. To. Deal. With.
Luckily, as time grinds along, the “bad” moments happen less frequently, or at least, they are less impactful, most of the time. They almost become part of the landscape.
Yep. It’s time to celebrate [insert life event here], and yeah, it’s without my loved one who died, but it’s still important and wonderful and each year that passes, I’m able to enjoy more, weep less.
That’s what’s happening to me. Generally.
Unfortunately, the big things, the important milestones, the traditions, still hurt. Time won’t stop that. Sometimes it’s still this excruciating pain, heart sliced wide open hurt.
Christmas. Yeah, that one still aches almost as badly as that first year, when I was still in denial, still expecting him to come walking down the hall at any moment.
Still wanted to believe he was alive.
And that’s what happened this weekend. Opening the Christmas bins. Seeing the stocking. The placemat he made for Santa, on which we were supposed to place the plate of cookies. The homemade ornaments and decorations. The memories that hit like an actual, physical force when I popped off that rubber top, for some reason, momentarily forgetting how. Fucking. Hard. This. Is.
Holy shit.
Yeah, life sucks right now. Like, exponentially.
But then this afternoon my husband suggested we go run errands before picking up the daughter from her friend’s house. And we talked about the fact that the lease on my car is up soon and what type we should consider next. And we bought stocking stuffers for the daughter. And he decided what he wanted to make for dinner, suggested one of my favorite wines to go with it. So we stopped at the grocery store.
And when we got home, I walked the dog. The husband will make dinner soon. We’ll harass our daughter about homework and remind her to take a shower. We’ll sit around the dining room table and exchange insults and jokes and do those regular, day-to-day things that suddenly seem so much more important than they did three years ago…
And we’ll smile. And laugh. And I’ll think:
I am so grateful for what I have.
Left.
Because I am.
Not that I’ll ever forget what we’re missing. It’s just that I’m figuring out how to balance the two.
A task I’ll continue to work on for the rest of my damn life.