Tag: Las Vegas Nevada

Vegas on crack

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Ronan. Is the picture above, sad? Because I wept just seeing it. It tells the story of everything that is wrong in this life, because you are gone. It tells the story of everything that should be, but is not. At least to me it does. Is everything sad? Because I can’t seem to stop crying. Is this because I spent much of my time in New York, not crying? I went days there, without crying. Now back here, I cannot seem to stop. I took my Ambien to go to sleep last night. Fucking Fuck. I just wanted to 6 solid hours of sleep without tossing and turning. Is that too much to ask? I woke up today, feeling rested. I thought it was going to be an o.k. day. I was wrong. I spent the morning being productive, trying to get some thank you cards addressed. It seems like I am drowning in them. I have to get them sent out. I hope there are not people out there, who think I am not thankful for all they have done, big and small. Nothing goes unnoticed. As I was addressing the envelopes, I thought to myself…. I really don’t recognize any of these names. Who are all of these selfless people, who love you so much that they wanted to help us in our darkest hours? Strangers? Long lost friends? Acquaintances? Is does not matter because they are all united by you so that makes me love them all, even if I may not know their faces. I feel like I know their hearts and they are beautiful.

I’m not sure what happened the rest of the day except I didn’t leave the house. I could easily become a hermit and I have decided I have developed Agoraphobia. Well, at least that is the way I felt today. I felt afraid of the world but hey…. that’s not right because I’m not supposed to be scared of anything. Today, I felt scared. Today, it seemed too bright outside to venture anywhere at all. So I didn’t. Do you know what the outside world looks like to me on most days? Las Vegas, on crack. Everything is so bright, that it hurts. Everything looks so fake and plastic. Everything feels like an illusion and a dream. Maybe I should move to Alaska where the sun doesn’t shine so much. I have a feeling my zombie self would do just fine there. I didn’t pick up the phone either, even though it kept ringing and my text messages, kept dinging. I was in the zone of cleaning out my jewelry drawer and I knew what I was going to find even though I wasn’t looking for it. The ziploc baggie that contains your hair. Your beautiful hair that I had saved when we shaved your head. I opened the baggie, felt your soft hair, and wept. In the middle of my crying, my doorbell rang. I threw on my big, chucky sweater and went to answer it. It was Mandy Bee and she was tired of me ignoring the phone and her. And she was worried. I let her in and let her hold me while I sobbed in her arms. I had the ziploc baggie of your hair in my hands. We sat on the couch and she tried to get me to leave with her. I told her I couldn’t go anywhere except for I had to meet your daddy at Dr. Rachels. I told her I needed to try to make myself look less like a zombie for that. She stayed with me as I somehow managed to throw on some mascara and take my hair out of it’s wet mop on top of my head. I totally had good intentions of leaving the house today, early on. I showered in the morning but I just couldn’t seem to manage much more than that.

Mandy Bee picked up your brothers at school for me. She brought them back to our house for a little playdate with her boys. She also insisted that she was taking me to dinner tonight. I told her no. I tried every excuse I could use, to get out of it. She wasn’t taking no for an answer. Your daddy took your brothers to play basketball. I headed out into the dark for a run. Mandy called me halfway through my run to tell me she was on her way to pick me up. That girl is so persistent. I finished my run just in time to hop in the shower before Mandy came to kidnap me. I answered the door and told Mandy I could not go anywhere that sweats/no makeup/ glasses on/wet hair up in a bun/chunky sweater/red eyes were not allowed. I also told her I could not eat because I had been throwing up all day. She totally pretended like she was agreeing to everything I was saying, but we ended up at True Foods anyway were I proceeded to eat a little something for her. I ate. I sat. We talked. I was glad I went out with her for the hour that I did. I needed the little shove that she gave me. I hope tomorrow is better. There has been a lot of screaming voices in my head again and they have not been saying very nice things. They are making me tired, restless, and exhausted. It’s obvious the grief grim reaper/inferno fuckwad Bob is back with a vengeance. I’ve been trying to let myself just be true to what I have felt the past couple of days. I have tried to be respectful of the way I am feeling by not forcing anything else. I am learning that grief comes in waves. It will never be a steady uphill process. I know I can get knocked back down, at anytime and it often feels like I am starting all over at square one. There is no rhyme or reason to this…. it’s just the way this grief thing works; for me at least. Everyone is different. All I can do it be patient and surrender to the way I am feeling, at this moment in time. One foot in front of the other as they say. Or two-steps backwards to go off the beaten path to an unknown destination. Nothing is guaranteed in life; especially not now. All I can do is keep trying to survive, one day at a time.

I love you. I miss you. I hope you are safe. Sweet dreams little man. I love you to the moon and back.

xoxo

Las Vegas, Chicago, and Palm Springs

Ronan. I’m still here despite my silence. It’s only been a few days since I’ve written, but it feels like a lifetime. A lot has happened, even though it really has not. Let me try to retrace my steps these past few days. Your Daddy ended up going to Vegas. It was a quick trip and I am glad he ended up going. He needed to. He deserved to. He needed to blow off some steam and spend some time with the boys doing boy things. Liam and Quinn left for Chicago with Mimi and Papa. They are still there. They went to the ASU game last night. It sounds like they have been having a great time.

While your Daddy and brothers were gone, I stayed home alone for the first time. I had people checking in on me, friends who were worried and said they didn’t like it….. that I should call my girlfriends to come and stay over. I didn’t listen. I wanted to see if I could do it. If I could handle being in our house, all by myself. It wasn’t enjoyable, but I made it though. The visions of blowing my brains out didn’t even crawl into my head like they usually do. I had a quiet night at home, crawled into bed, did a few things on the computer, and tossed and turned all night. I walked around the house a lot. Looked outside, expecting to find you. I didn’t. I made it though the Silent Night without you. FUCK. That song. I used to sing it to you ALL the time. I never sang it to Liam and Quinn. Always to you. It is what I would sing, hum, whisper to you when I was rocking you to sleep. I never knew what a silent night it would really end up being. That song creeps me out now. I hate it. Why that song? Is it because I knew that one day, I would be without you, alone in our house, and I would have to survive the fucking silent night? I had to survive the night without you. I had to do it alone. I hated every second of it.

Your Daddy came home from Vegas and as soon as he walked in the door, we hopped in the car and headed to Palm Springs. It was a last minute trip and we knew we should take advantage of your brothers being gone, so we decided to drive out to Palm Springs to see Laura and Kasey. It was either that or stay in Phoenix and get caught up in our everyday stuff. We both knew we needed to get out of town, to see some dear friends, to spend some time together, just the two of us. I have forgotten what it is like to be with your Daddy, just the two of us. To be honest, I was nervous about spending this time with him. You know how closed off I am to everyone and everything. Guess what I found on this trip though?? I found one of my best friends again. Your Daddy. I remembered. I remembered why I fell in love with him 13 years ago. I remembered why I married him. I remembered why I love the feeling of holding his hand. I remembered how I love to see him smile. I remembered how I used to love to smile for him. I remember how much I love how he towers over me and makes me feel so tiny, even though I am tall. I remembered all of that and it felt nice. It all felt really nice, but it made me miss you even more. This guilt/grief thing really messes with ones mind. Anytime I felt a tinge of happiness, I would feel a rush of guilt wash over me. As if I was betraying you. I tried to talk myself out of these feelings, but it was impossible. I’m just going to continue to do what I’ve been doing, which is to nurture the feelings I am having and not try to change them. I have to embrace them and right now, and guilt is a big part of what I feel. I feel guilty for many things, but most of all for being here and living this life without you. It seems so unfair. You were supposed to be here, living this life with us. You were supposed to live to be a hundred, not only almost 4. Just shows you how little control we have of this thing called life. Absolutely none. I said this to your Daddy tonight. I don’t know how our conversation started, but it ended up with me yelling something like, “So what! We did everything right in our lives. EVERYTHING! And look what happened to us!” Just goes to show you, there are no guarantees in life, no matter how hard you work, how much you love, how you think you make all the right choices….. It can all be taken away in an instant and then what? You are left blind-sighted, trapped in this life, wishing for death everyday. But good thing you worked so hard to make the perfect plan.

Palm Springs was a good break. It was pretty low key. We spent some time with Laura and Kasey. I got to see your little friend, Cameron. She misses you. It was harder than I thought it was going to be, being around her. I spent a lot of Friday night, at Laura and Kasey’s house, just crying. I sat with Cameron and painted her little 3 year old fingernails and toe nails. As I was in the middle of this, she looked up at me and goes, “Maya, why did Ronan die in the hospital?” Oh, baby. I didn’t even know how to answer her. I couldn’t think of anything remotely acceptable to respond as an answer to her. So I didn’t. I just choked back my tears instead. Laura soon put Cameron to bed. I went to snuggle with her and we talked and I rubbed her back. I sang her our “Twinkle, Twinkle, LIttle Star,” as I played with her little fingers that reminded me so much of yours. You both have the same big hands and long fingers. I cried as I snuggled with her. Sweet, sweet, girl. She talks about you a lot and thinks about you a lot. She misses you and told Laura she wishes you were back with us. That’s a big thing to come out of a 3 year olds mouth. She loves you. I remember how much you loved her too. I’ll never forget your Tu Tu party with her, your first summer at the beach together, how you discovered your love of pickles together. Laura and I would talk about how you would grow into adults and get married. It was the perfect plan until it wasn’t. Until is was no more. No more planning your days, months, years, or life.

How quickly everything changes. What an awful change.

It was good to spend some time with our friends. I tried my best to keep it together and to smile and laugh along with my tears. The endless tears that just flow whenever, wherever. I have no control. I don’t need to. You are worth every one of them. The endless tears that I know I will cry for the rest of my life, Ro. I miss you.

My melatonin is starting to kick in. I’m tired, baby. I hate that I have to go to sleep now, without kissing you goodnight. Do all of you mommies out there, who have your babies, know how lucky you are?? For the first time in my life, I know the feeling of being jealous. A feeling I have never experienced in my life, but now I do, after losing Ro. It is a very sad thing to feel. It stings and it’s ugly. But I feel it, and I’m not going to deny it. I hope one day I won’t, but as of now I do. I refuse to let it make me an ugly person. Jealousy can turn the most beautiful people, into the most ugly. I will deal with it, let it fuel my fire for this fucked up disease of Childhood Cancer, that everybody just wants to ignore. Here’s what I have to say to anyone who reads what I write, but chooses to look the other way. Childhood Cancer can happen to ANYONE. Infants, toddlers, children, teen-agers, adolescents…. ANYONE. If you read about Ronan, if you are now aware of his story and you choose to do nothing…. I feel sorry for you. Truly sorry. I pray that the day never comes, that somebody you know, whether it be your child, niece, nephew, grandchild, best friends child, etc…… GOD FORBID, ends up getting cancer. You will feel like such an Asshole, knowing that you knew about Ro, but continued to live your blissfully happy life. If you are reading this blog, it is for a REASON. Do something with that reason. Help be a change. Be aware. Be proactive. Stop sitting on your ass and living in a bubble. If there ever comes a day, that your bubble bursts and you had your wake up call but didn’t take it…… Well that just sucks. I don’t care if the only way you change your life, is by just being more thankful….. At least that is something and it has come from the beauty of my son. I refuse to let him die in vain. I WILL NOT LET HIM DIE IN VAIN. This is my promise to him and the world. A change is coming. A change for the better, because life without one is absolutely pathetic and disgusting.

That’s my political attempt for the night, with my eyes half closed and heart ALWAYS heavy. Miss you, my baby doll. So much more to say, but words are failing me. I love you to the moon and back. I hope you are safe. Night baby.