Saturday, July 20, 2013

Pregnancy After Loss: Grief


Yesterday, in Starbucks, I spotted a mother and her three young daughters, lined up in a row of window seats, sipping cool drinks and reading library books and filling out pages in what I assumed to be some sort of summer enrichment workbooks.  Knowing another baby girl is on her way to our family, I watched them, watched the sisters in their sundresses squirm and occasionally squabble, watched the mother in her cute sandals manage them all calmly.  I smiled, imagining my future as a mother of daughters, beginning to dream of our own similarly organized and educational adventures. 

And then, when the mother turned to help the oldest with her workbook, I watched the youngest two girls talking, and it hit me suddenly that there were three.  Three daughters:  living, laughing, and interacting in a way that my three girls never will.

I watched the middle daughter, noted her dark bob and white sandals, and thought of Avaleen, wondered what she would have been like, if she would have made her sisters laugh or perhaps been the one to calm them with her steadiness.  

This pregnancy has eased some of my griefs, but it hasn't changed these facts:  there will always be one daughter missing, and there will always be one daughter missed.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Beautiful writing Abby. You were painting with word pictures. I felt as if the scene were unfolding in front of me. Thinking of you and your girls.

Anonymous said...

Tomorrow would have been my younger sister's 34th birthday. After all these years I still wonder what it would have been like to know her and how she would have impacted our family. I look forward to the day when I will finally meet her...
--Linda

Abby said...

Thanks for the encouragement Aunt Julie!

Abby said...

Linda, thanks for sharing your own thoughts about your little sister.