It is hard to feel sad when you focus on being grateful. That’s what I’m trying to do. I don’t want to delve into all that my family has been through in the past 22 months. However, to give you some perspective, in less than two years, we lost our 13 and 16 year old niece and nephew, Erin and Andrew, in a car accident.
Five months later, my father-in-law died in a tragic car accident (it appears he had a heart attack behind the wheel).
Blake was four weeks old at the time. Less than three months after my father-in-law’s death, my mother-in-law had a stroke, followed by cancer. Thank god she is still with us and miraculously, she’s doing pretty well. Things were calm for a while, then I had my miscarriage in November, and on Thursday, we lost my sister-in-law’s long-time boyfriend, Jeff, who was a brother-in-law to us.
To have this much happen to one family in less than two years, is unheard of. Throughout all of this, I’ve had amazing support from my girlfriends, in particular, my friend DeAnna.
While I am an outgoing, social person, I get very quiet when it comes to tragedy. I don’t pick up or return phone calls because I can’t physically speak of what’s happened. As a reporter, I could detach myself from the situation, but when tragedies have occurred in my own life, I need time to process the pain before I talk about it. DeAnna gets that about me. She also doesn’t let me get away with it!
Last Thursday, while dealing with the shock of losing Jeff and trying to do my best to help our family, I wouldn’t pick up or return phone calls. DeAnna knows when I need her (even if I don’t even realize it myself) and she called my husband to make sure she talked to me. While I’m trying to help everyone else, she always asks how I am and gives me the ten minute break on the phone, away from chaos, to talk about my feelings. She also understands that sometimes I may just rather text than talk on the phone. Throughout our friendship, she has never judged me, is not jealous of my friendships with other girlfriends, and genuinely cheers me on in my endeavors.
DeAnna and I met when I was the morning anchor at News 14 Carolina in Charlotte. She was a producers at Fox Charlotte. She thought I was stuck-up at first (I don’t know what because I was very nice! we joke about that now) but we quickly became friends when we both joined the Junior League. DeAnna was a bridesmaid in my wedding and is a rock in my life.
She also encouraged me to start blogging! She’s been blogging for a few years now. You can check out her blog here.
So today, I’m grateful for my good friend who has helped me through one heck of a couple of years. I just hope I’m as a good a friend to her as she is to me. Who are the girlfriends that have helped you through tough times? I’d love to hear your stories.
