It’s easy to get caught up in our own losses and forget that death impacts everyone. You look around at the grocery store and think you are the only widow buying hamburgers you’ll probably burn again. At the Dr’s office, it’s easy to assume the rest of the dads are at work. On vacation, every single couple is living the life you don’t get to have. But we don’t know that to be reality.
I often find myself having a little pity party when it comes to youth sports. It can feel like I’m on an island as the only solo mom. It doesn’t help that I am not a sporty spice mom. So, my own insecurities are playing in my head.
My youngest son joined a new baseball team this season. I signed him up as a free agent and he landed on a team who scooped up a handful of new kids. Fall baseball is pretty low key, so the coaches planned one practice prior to the first game.
While the kids were on the field, I found myself chatting with another mom who is new to the team. Within the first 15 minutes, she tells me her sons dad died by suicide a few years ago. I don’t normally offer that information right away but felt weird not to tell her that my husband also died by suicide.
The conversation moved in other directions, but my mind kept spinning back to this coincidence. This one baseball team has 2 kids who not only lost a parent, but lost them to suicide.
It goes to show, you never know what others are carrying around. There are more of you out there in the wild, we just haven’t started getting those Widow forehead tattoos yet.
