I don't think you're heartless, BluesBrother! I remember all the things bikerchic listed (except it was a nephew dying at 2 and my sister dying at 43 on the homefronts), and I knew Cowboy's sad story, and yet I was really, really upset when John Lennon was assassinated, for example.
My four biggest personal hells to date were the news that my father had died while I was attending school in Switzerland, my own diagnosis of breast cancer (if you think realizing that living forever is a lie and that death awaits us all is a shocker, wait until you have been told you have a life-threatening disease!!!), and, undoubtedly the WORST, 9/11/2001 which even eclipsed my daughter's brain surgery!
Not only did I share in the enormous grief of my entire nation at what was happening, but I watched the events on the TV in a hospital waiting room and was called away from the second tower crash to be told that my then-husband was a ticking time bomb. Four clogged arteries and a miracle he hadn't had a heart attack yet; transfer imminent to a different hospital where open heart surgery would be performed ASAP and I had absolutely NO relatives living in the same part of the country with me!!! And I had DA'd from the "Friends" in March of that same year. Thank God for nice neighbors and newly minted friends!!!!
Then, to make things worse, we had to sit on pins and needles for another TWO days before the surgery was performed because Beaumont was a National Trauma Center and they were only performing emergency surgeries in order to conserve blood that might be needed for the airlifted wounded from the World Trade Center. Sadly, as we later learned, the proportion of "wounded" to "killed" was very low.
In the meantime, my sister-in-law and my mother bravely drove out from Connecticut and New York, respectively, to be with me, but the two of them nearly drove me insane with their "needs" at a time when I needed help with my own!!!
I have never lived through a more stressful week because of the double whammy of national and personal tragedy. I felt more reassured that Lena's brain surgery would be successful, albeit stressful, because of the way everything had unfolded -- I had time to absorb, reflect, plan, ask questions, research, and pray. Her attitude was positive and the whole family was pulling together (even my estranged husband was truly "present" for a change). The thought of losing her to death or impairment was terrifying, I nearly lost it in the hospital about 1/2 way through the 9-1/2 hour surgery (the open-heart surgery was "only" 5 hours) -- and had to escape first to the chapel and then outdoors to ground myself, but at least it wasn't all sprung on me within a couple of hours as it had been on 9/11.
God, I think my blood pressure must be about off the chart just reliving all of these! Time to visit a happier thread! LOL
