The Checkout Lady

I have been complaining quite a bit about how no one seems to want to talk about or never brings up Lakens name. Just the other night I was telling my husband that it seems that his family are the only people who are willing to talk about her with me. He said sometimes People just don't know what to say, so they don't say anything.

Yesterday I was doing some grocery shopping. It was a fairly normal day for me. Not too sad and not too happy. I ended up getting into a conversation with the checkout lady. After talking to her for about 5 minutes I found out that she too was a BLM, except her baby was 15 years old when she lost her to Meningits. She said that her daughter would have been 21 if she were here. For once, I was a bit speechless. At first I didn't know what to say. The very same thing I had been complaining about with other people. Finally, I told her that I know how much hurt I've been through with losing my baby, but I won't try to compare the two because neither one are easy.

Even though I understood, it wasn't quite the same. Being a BLM I knew what it was like to lose that bundle of joy that I was looking forward to, but not a child that had a personality of their own. A child I had spent years raising and being around. Me having two older children, I couldn't imagine losing those two. Losing my baby girl was hard enough and enough to set me back in a whole other world full of lonely and darkness. Although I couldn't imagine only getting 15 years, I'm sure she is somewhere saying that she couldn't imagine not getting those 15 years.