six years
Ken died six years ago on Friday (25th). It's hard for me to believe he's been gone 72 months. Somehow, it seems both longer and shorter than that. Ian and I were both numb that first year, our goal simply to not lose any more ground than we already had. It took all our effort simply to stay where we were emotionally. After the first year, we decided we would take a step forward. Not a bunch, but just one, and maybe look around the corner. We'd both been going to individual & group therapy, and were beginning to get used to this whole “just the two of us against the world.” Ian learned that mom had done a whole lot more in her life than teach him and be “mom”. I learned that I was going to have to have him help me, but I had to be careful that I didn't put Ken's responsibilities on him. I won't say we thrived, but we survived. Slowly, the new normal set in, not comfortably, but tolerable. Ian graduated from high school and went to RIT. My hous...