How do you deal?

I used to watch TV with my mom and when we would see sad or inspirational stories she would always tear up. I never understood it. We didn't know these people and how could someone be so attached to a runner or a football player to tear up when they won the race or game? She would just laugh and tell me that some day I would understand the emotional expression. My mom is overly emotional bordering on kookybird so I just assumed her personality had been twisted in this way. I hate to say it but now in my own kookybird way, I understand it.

I figured it out when I heard that story on NPR where a woman's son was a normal active child then was diagnosed with Ecoli and in three days was dead; I understood and teared up for her. Those coal miners that died in West Virginia and China, I was engrossed in their story and felt genuine fear and grief for the families that were left behind. That gasoline platform that blew up in the Gulf...when I heard about the 11 men that were missing, my first instinct was that they were blown to bits in the explosion but when I heard the woman speaking about her missing husband I grieved, teared up and hoped that maybe he would be found.

Once your life is changed in an instant, it is a gut reaction to feel something for other people who have had this experience. On May 11, 2009 my family and I were skipping merrily down the lane dealing with everything life had to give us and trying to embrace each day but once the calendar turned a couple pages we reached a hairpin turn. Now when I'm faced with these personal tragedies I have some experience on how to deal with them whether I want to or not. I'm waiting for the day when L. laughs at me for tearing up at a run of the mill news story. Maybe her experience will teach her how to deal before she is my age.