The last few weeks at my house have been a challenge. My
youngest daughter ended up in the hospital, for what we thought would be a day
or two—but it turned into five days and surgery. While she was in the hospital
her little guy got the flu and ran an almost constant temperature for two days.
The doctor had said he would be pretty sick for a couple of days, but then he
would get better. He didn’t.
We took him back to the doctor (mommy was still in the
hospital) and he had a terrible ear infection and had to start antibiotics.
Mommy got out of the hospital and the air conditioning decided it didn’t want
to cool the house.
The dog ran away—pushing through the electric fence—and got
picked up by the county. We had to bail him out of doggie jail, and then the
animal control police showed up to give him a ticket for being “unrestrained.”
Then we found out that our little guy had to have surgery to
replace the tubes in his ears, and my eldest daughter’s cat was attacked and
killed by two stray dogs in her neighborhood. She was devastated by the
violence and heartbroken at her loss.
I had the good fortune of being raised by not just one excellent mother but also an entire community of them. And I’d have to say I’m the better for it.
