I'm Working On It...

Lots to report, but first I want to say that I promised Erin I'd have my photoblog caught up by... two Saturdays ago, and I've yet to do that.

The excuse-riddled version of reality is that I forgot I had a birthday party to attend that day, and that I'm having a slight technical difficulty moving the photos from where I had stored them (well, some of them) to my computer.

Anyway, I'm working on it.

Summer School turned out okay. It's amazing what having 12 students instead of over twice that many can do. Maybe I'll give a more detailed account some day, but don't count on it.

A week ago tomorrow I received an e-mail that a friend's daughter had passed away. She was born with a severe chromosome disorder. They believe she had a seizure in her sleep, and this was the cause of death.

She'd turn four on the 20th of this month.

I hadn't talked to my friend for a long time (one or two e-mails as the exception, I hadn't exchanged words with him in close to 20 years), but this still hit me in a bad way.

Then I just got an e-mail from Tricia that the only surviving member of Ben's "class" (as in "treatment of cancer class") passed away.

And the strange thing is how hard this hit me. I was about to call Ben to see how he was doing, then realized it's 10:15 (well, later than that now, I suppose).

I haven't suffered that kind of out-of-the-blue weeping (meaning a sudden outburst with no... uh... prelims) since some time after Mom died.

I remember attending a class with Tricia (since Ben had two very small girls at home at the time, I was Plan B for if one of the girls got sick and Ben couldn't stay at his house), and meeting this man's wife. They were expecting their first child, and she learned that he would not be able to help change diapers. It's just a thing that stuck in my head.

I'm not even sure I ever met this guy. I think I might have at the one survivor celebration I attended with Ben, now that I think about it.

His daughter turns 5 on her dad's funeral date.

And apparently his wife is in remission from breast cancer.

Anyway, it's apparently very upsetting (or, perhaps his passing along with the little-one's passing last week has just sent me over the weepy edge) and I wanted to share. I couldn't think of who I would feel comfortable calling at this hour to share my upset-ed-ness with, so I figured the whole world (or the handful of people who read this blog) will have to do.

So, if you'd like to post a comment and share something wonderful that's happened to you (or someone you know) lately, I could use the upbeat news.