Beyond Tears: Living After Losing a Child by Rita Volpe
Author:Rita Volpe [Volpe, Rita]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780312328290
Amazon: 0312545193
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Published: 2005-02-02T00:00:00+00:00
ANDREA LEVINE
For several months, I had been having fleeting thoughts that someone in our family would die. I tried to put such notions aside, but could not and found them most disturbing.
On an unusually mild Saturday afternoon in December of 1987, Andrea and I went shopping for a new outfit for her. My daughter truly had a passion for shopping. We joked that her motto was âout of the bag and onto my back.â But it was not only for herself that Andrea shopped. It was usually Andrea who thought to buy the greeting cards, and it was she who reminded her older brother and sister when there was a family birthday or anniversary to be recognized with a gift.
As we walked, she told me to remember that she was an organ donor. I looked at her and wondered what she was thinking. âSo what,â was all I said.
That evening Andrea left to drive to New Jersey to visit a friend. Typical of mothers everywhere, I cautioned her to start out early and drive carefully.
âMa,â she said, âdonât worry about me; worry about the other drivers.â Those were to be the last words Andrea ever said to me.
At 11 P.M. a police officer phoned and said Andrea had been in a serious car accident in Bloomfield, New Jersey. When our children were young, we had always told them to phone if they had any difficulty and when we could hear their voice we would know all was well. I asked the police officer if I could speak to Andrea. When he said I could not, I knew we were up against something serious.
Andrea was the youngest of our three children. She was caring and sensitive with a warm, winning personality and a ready smile. She made and kept friends with ease and was in constant touch seemingly with all of them at once by telephone. The image of her talking on two phones simultaneously will forever bring a smile to my face.
She was able to pick and choose her friends wisely because she had an uncanny ability to cut to the chase. She sensed who was genuine and who was not. She was a dark-haired, cute and tiny dynamo whom we nicknamed âWheelsâ because she was always spinning, talking, going and doing. When Andrea was at home, the house was always busy.
She was our family personality and she made us laugh with such pranks as filling the refrigerator with family shoes when she found it depressingly empty after her big brother left for college.
Apparently, Andrea lost her way that December night. She was alone in the car and in the wrong place at the wrong time when a young man of eighteen plowed into the driverâs side of her car. There were no drugs or alcohol involved but it was his first time at the wheel. He was just an inexperienced driver who walked away without a scratch.
We rushed down to the hospital trauma center in New Jersey where Andrea had been taken and was already undergoing surgery.
Download
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.
They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera(9461)
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher(8427)
The Space Between by Michelle L. Teichman(6560)
Suicide Notes by Michael Thomas Ford(4638)
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom(4375)
Suicide: A Study in Sociology by Emile Durkheim(2895)
The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande(2639)
Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom(2562)
In the Woods by Tana French(2383)
Bossypants by Tina Fey(2363)
Robin by Dave Itzkoff(2258)
No Ashes in the Fire by Darnell L Moore(2198)
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout(2187)
Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor(2129)
End of Days by Sylvia Browne(2043)
All Things New by John Eldredge(2042)
Bus on Jaffa Road by Mike Kelly(2030)
Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis(2001)
No Time to Say Goodbye(1986)
