Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for May 15, 2015

Just who is going to help Val cope with this ordeal if she won’t open up?

She has issues, that’s natural. When was she supposed to have dealt with the loss of her first husband? She had her mother, sister, two daughters and a job to take care of.

For all Val knows this could be a repetitive thing. Have a husband for a few years and then he dies. The two of them were perfectly happy with being very close friends. It was the others in their lives that were pushing this marriage thing.

Val is so deep in denial that if you gave her CPR, she’d cough up Egyptian water.

You’d figure that she would have found all the gum stuck under the desk by now.

In ‘toon time this is what, the day after the accident, if not sooner? (She just told her mom, and Joan would have called if Val was spending a long time waiting for him to wake up). In that frame, after Mom’s emergencies, Dad and I were channeling calm in her presence. So, hear about it on the radio, get scared. Wait in hospital. Have to be brave for your daughters and his aunt. Have to be practical, discuss care after release with his aunt. Choke down your reaction so the patient isn’t upset. Go home, tired, things begin to catch up to you and you’re tired. Tell Mom, and Mom’s a safe person who it’s safe to be weak around. Have a normal human reaction. Especially for a widow. Of course she hasn’t processed this.

Yeah right Val!

I would consider this a mild panic attack, but now I’m not so sure.

I am so sorry your father is stuck in this mode, but it does sound like, being from “the old country” his life will change little until he decides to change it. Good luck and I wish him well. I hope he can focus on what he has, rather than what he might lose.