Nelle’s birthday did not arrive slowly as it has in past years. Usually, I could feel the weight of the day creeping up on me. It would be September. I would start to look ahead to our annual trip to the coulee, and the tree where we scattered her ashes. So there was planning, preparation, and looking ahead to her birthday.
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Quentin turns 8 years old today. We never could have imagined a birthday like this one.
Our schools are shut down, at least until April 6th, but I am going to guess that it will be longer. Restaurants are closed to dine-in eating. We had plans to go to a hotel and waterpark in a few weeks to celebrate his birthday and that has been cancelled. All due to the rapid spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus) and the practicing of social distancing to help flatten the curve – a bunch of phrases that weren’t even in my vocabulary a week ago. Continue reading
In the passing of years since my daughters died, I have become more prepared for the “hard days” – the hardest being their birthdays. Nelle’s birthday was Labor Day weekend that particular year, so it ushers in multiple days of grief in the subsequent years. And Iris’s birthday is February 13th – the day before Valentine’s Day. As our family prepares to shower love on each other, I am slammed the day before with how she is not with us. Continue reading
Four years. 1,461 days. My baby girl, my first daughter, my Nelle Claudia Dej was born. She was given a name we had already picked out. When we brought home her ashes, it was to a nursery that we had already started to furnish. Continue reading
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I am counting the days, one by one, until September 4th. Nelle’s birthday. It will have been four years since she was stillborn.
That year, it was Labor Day weekend. So not only do I have the actual day, but everything surrounding Labor Day reminds me of that weekend. Continue reading
