I don’t like to have someone’s loss remind me how lucky I am. Yet, every day, where I work, someone is dealing with a loss. There are places in the park I don’t like to drive past, even if Motley is in the car with me. I never meant to have a career in an industry like this.
I started out my real career (if I don’t count where I was working during college or the stuff I did before that) at the Starlight Children’s Foundation. The first referral I took was for a boy of 18 who had been turned down by Make A Wish. He was too old. He didn’t fit their criteria. The boy, who lived in Oregon, was terminal. He wanted a big screen TV. He died before it arrived… and I cried myself to sleep for a week.
When you don’t really know someone, you don’t know what to say to them when they have suffered a loss. However, where I work, we’re always supposed to know what to say. We’re supposed to be compassionate, and do whatever we can to help the family through one of life’s most difficult times. But really, when it boils right down to it, what we say to them is - in the words of ShinyBitch - just putting a band-aid on a bullet wound.
Even though I don’t know Dawg like the rest of you do, my heart goes out to him today. For the Puppy Monster, whose beautiful marker is a testament to the power and the love in the Blogosphere, I will hug Motley today and be grateful that I have her.
Yes, it’s time to tell you who won the hat in the Blog Reader Appreciation Week drawing. Everyone who wrote a comment had their name written on a sticky note. The slip of paper was rolled up and dropped into a purse (a Dooney and Bourke, of course). Once all the rolled up sticky notes were in the purse, Motley (after she got home from seeing the Love Guru) drew one out.
The winner of a stunningly beautiful Socially Dead or rakishly eyecatching Sunlight Sucks hat is….
Congratulations, Marty! Please email me at winter at winterheart dot com and tell me which hat you want. Include your mailing address as well or Motley might keep the hat. Heh heh.
Look for the Spa Edition of Sunday Silence tomorrow. Well, if I get photos taken of my hair, my nails, my toes… hee hee. Have a great weekend!
