A SorrowFull Mother: Wonderful, awful season

As I noted in a November 2012 post, I’ve kept two cards displayed on the table next to a basket of "sympathy" cards. Neither suggests Brandon's death is an event that will resolve in feelings of peace, comfort or healing. Each acknowledged the enormity of this particular grief and offered support while conceding a lack of understanding since neither had experienced the death of one of their children.

The basket of cards remains on the table. I've tried to reread them. I've tried to move that basket or place the cards in a box or plastic bag to save elsewhere, but I'm simply not ready to do either. The two "special" cards remain in place next to the overflowing basket. However, a third card has recently joined the other two.

A day or two before Christmas I received a card from a long-time friend. (We go back to grade school and beyond. She was a bridesmaid in my wedding.) The card let me know that she understood how difficult this season is for a mother missing her child and whose loss creates a black hole in her heart. To emphasize the card's words, this friend included a contribution for the foundation we started in Brandon's name to raise funds for innovative head and neck research.

I am currently away from winter and Christmas festivities at home. Another friend and her husband offered to let my husband and I use their Florida condo this week, and it has been good to be in sunshine, warm breezes, flowers, and green grass and trees. Yet it means I can't include photos of the outside/inside of the card that joined two other special cards; I will add these photos to this post later this week.

**January 4, 2014 update - adding the outside/inside of the card photos…