I have been working on this post for weeks. I’ve wanted to write. I’ve needed to write. And yet I can’t put thoughts to paper. There is just too much going on in my mind. This time of year, back to work, doing my job virtually. I have a thought and then the thread just splits and splits again, and spreads, and spreads, forming an incoherent web. As a result, this post may be disjointed.
I finally got it together to write because of the date. Almost four years ago, in October or November of 2016, we had to look ahead and imagine what we would be doing four years later. We were sitting at Ariella’s Hebrew school, listening to the rabbi talk about bar/bat mitvah and choosing a date. Now Ariella was young for her grade so while most would be choosing a date for closer to 3 years from then, we were looking at closer to 4 years, just after starting 8th grade. It was a daunting task. Choosing such an important day, Ariella’s bat mitzvah, so far in advance (some schools don’t do this so far out but it seems more and more are scheduling b’nai mitzvah quite far out). Who could possibly know what would be going on on a specific day 3 or 4 years later? We put a lot of thought into the date, considering the time of year and dance season. Ultimately, since Ariella was young for her grade we wanted to wait until she was closer to 13. So we picked a couple of days in September 2020 ( only a couple to choose from because of the Jewish holidays) and one in I think January or February 2020, before dance competition season. We got our second choice, which was September 26, 2020. Tomorrow. Four years ago, when we weren’t sure what we would be doing, we would never have thought in our wildest imagination that instead of celebrating with Ariella, we would be grieving for her. We also of course never imagined we would be in a pandemic and her bat mitzvah would most likely have been virtual. This probably would have pleased her. She had said for quite a while she didn’t want a bat mitzvah. But after going to a few of her friends’, she agreed that she would have one, as long as her party could be a pajama party. Tomorrow. Tomorrow she should be becoming a bat mitzvah. When we were looking ahead in the fall of 2016, we were facing the unknown, as the future always is. We couldn’t believe we were already talking about her bat mitzvah. It seemed so far away. Just two or three months after submitting our 3 options for dates, Ariella was diagnosed. A few weeks or so after that we got the bat mitzvah date. We went from thinking about planning an exciting event, to filling binders with medical information. We went from an optimistic and carefree existence to wondering if Ariella would live to see her bat mitzvah. In that time from choosing her date, Ariella was diagnosed with cancer, went through 10 months of treatment, was declared no evidence of disease, relapsed, underwent another 9 months of treatment, had a bone marrow transplant, and died. Our greatest fear was realized. Ariella did not live to see her bat mitzvah. Tomorrow, instead of celebrating Ariella’s coming of age, we continue to mourn her loss.
On the recommendation of a friend I am currently reading (finished, now that I have finally come back to this post) Option B by Sheryl Sandberg, which she wrote after the death of her husband. Our losses are very different but some of what she says resonates with me, particularly this one quote that really struck me. It isn’t Sheryl’s quote but the quote of a woman named Virginia Schimpf Nacy. Her husband died at age 53, and six and a half years after that, her son died. She said “Both deaths are woven into the fabric of my life, but they’re not what define me.” Their deaths do not define her. I sat on this quote for a while. I turned this quote over and over in my mind. I thought about what it is that defines a person. Is it her personality? Her job? Her relationships to others? There are so many factors that make a person who they are and yet the only one that matters to me is that I am the parent of a dead child. My life, my purpose and meaning, or lack thereof, is currently 100% defined by the death of Ariella. How I think and feel and react is entirely through the lens of a bereaved mother. When your child dies, when your whole reason for being dies, how can that possibly not define you? I am a grieving mother. Not a second of any day goes by that I forget that, that I don’t feel it deep in my bones. Some days, some moments, I feel it more sharply than others, but it is always there. Following me. Inhabiting me. Driving my decisions. It may not be evident to others but it doesn’t leave me. I am forever changed. Maybe I never will feel like Ariella’s death doesn’t define me, or maybe one day I will find that my identity is not solely linked to my dead child. Today is not that day. If that day does come, I do know that as the author of the quote said, her death will always be intertwined in my entire being.
I really haven’t been well. This time of year, that used to be my favorite, now just brings more sadness and anxiety. September. Childhood cancer awareness month. I feel obligated to post, to spread awareness. But it hurts. I’m bitter and resentful that I have to do it at all. Why does it fall to the bereaved and the caregivers to advocate for something everyone should feel passionate about? When all I want to do is ignore it, I just can’t. Because if it helps just one child, it has to be done. CureFest, which we attended the past two years, is virtual this year (read here for more about our experience at CureFest https://lifeafterchildloss.net/curefest/). And I am so glad. Because I really do not have it in me this year to attend. Hearing all the stories of hope and success. Seeing the amazing and strong fighters and survivors. I am happy for them. I am. Of course I want everyone to have hope and be well. But I don’t have hope. And my child didn’t make it. And I am jealous. So very jealous. And seeing the hope and strength and fight brings me back to when we were there in 2017 and Ariella was almost finished treatment. We had the same hopeful and optimistic outlook. We thought in a few months we would be among the survivors. It was a celebratory atmosphere. And I want no part of it. I would have gone. For David. For Ari’s Bears. And there are many people I would like to see. But the rest. It’s just too much.
And now October is approaching. Ariella’s birthday. She should be looking forward becoming a teenager. Crisp air and the anticipation of the holiday season, beginning with Halloween, Ariella’s favorite. Reminders everywhere of what we lost, of what we are missing. Walking into Trader Joe’s, visually assaulted by pumpkins. This time of year every time we shopped in Trader Joes’ we came out with at least one pumpkin, sometimes several. Colorful leaves on the ground, crunching beneath my feet. Memories of corn mazes and hayrides and picking pumpkins and apples. Trick or Treating. Ariella in all of her Halloween costumes. Fall is for families.
What David and I want, more than anything, other than of course having Ariella with us, is a family. We are missing Ariella and all the things we did with her and we are missing her future as well. But we are also missing being a family. Being parents. We miss all of it. Rocking to sleep, reading before bed, first days of school, vacations, game nights, helping with homework, recitals. We miss the mundane daily routines and we miss the arguments and tantrums and eye rolls. We miss everything. The good, the bad, and the ugly. We want two things that mean anything and we can’t seem to have either. And before I get the comments about ways we can be parents or caregivers or still be involved with children, please don’t. We know our options. It’s not so easy as just deciding to be parents. So we are left adrift, trying to figure out “what next?”
Couple all of this with doing my job virtually, which is making me even more miserable, and everything is hitting me quite hard. At the gym I see a news story on TV outside of Hopkins. I see the Hopkins sign and the bridge that I drove under every single day from February 25-May 9 2019. If I look hard enough I see the room in which Ariella died. That same day at the gym I hear a song that Ariella danced to. It was a group tap dance. I watched her practice many times. She never got to perform it. I have two outlets. Exercise and work. But I hate my job right now. It is frustrating and ineffective and I have headaches every day from the screen. There is a reason I don’t have a desk job. All of this to say I’m struggling, more than I had been. Year two has been a hell of a lot harder than year one. And I feel much more lost.