Being April

She is sixty two years old. She has three children, and nine grandchildren, plus two stepchildren, and three step-grandchildren, and one on the way. She is dying. She has no health insurance. She has no life insurance. She can't afford to stay in the hospital, so her husband hasn't been to work in two months so he can take care of her. She is getting worse all the time. No one knows for sure how long she'll live. A day. A week. A month. Three months. No one has much hope beyond that. Does it matter that she hasn't gone to church since she was 18 except once for the blessing of a grandchild? Does it matter that she has been an alcoholic for all of her adult life? Her step-grandkids know her as grandma: provider of toys and hours of fun. They love her. Her step-son tolerates her, even though he still blames her for destroying his parent's marriage. Her husband is slowely sliding into depression, and turning to the alcoholism that he has been fighting for decades. His...

Dean won't be deploying after all! Hooray! This means he won't be gone when baby#4 arrives. He won't miss out on the first year of his/her life. He won't have to leave me with four small children all by myself! Hooray! Of course, nothing about this is certain. For some reason he is still on the list to go to the month long training in August. We suspect so that it's either a mistake, or they want him to teach someone else how to do his job, since he won't be going. There is also the chance that they will change their minds and decide that they want him to come after all. And there is always always the possibility that things will escalate, or war will break out elsewhere and he will be sent out with very little notice at any time. Dean is pretty upset that he won't be going, mostly because he was supposed to be getting a battlefield promotion, that would put him into a leadership position, that he was really really looking forward to doing. They can'...