My life with the Sullivan boys

It begins with an email. An announcement. A mother has lost her child. Another mother. A freak accident, no explanation that makes any sense to anyone. The phone calls between friends begin. The tears. The "what should I do?" The "I can't imagine." The shock. The walking through the grocery store in a daze because you can't seem to comprehend why a little girl had to die. I don't pretend to be best friend's with her mother, but I do call her a friend. When I think of her face, I see a smile and a warm greeting. She always walks toward me, not away. She doesn't deserve this heartbreak. Her daughter was in my son's class two years in a row. I was disappointed when I heard she wouldn't be a classmate this year. She was the one I had picked to grow up with Ryan. I teased him occasionally to remember to be nice to her because you were going to take her to prom someday. They live around the block from us. Her mom, dad and little brother...

I'm still here. Dermot is still here. On September 9th, Dermot's leg was broken at school. We've been home bound ever since. What does home bound mean? It means Dermot's in a rented reclining wheelchair that is next to impossible to put in my van. It is equipped with four flimsy nylon tie downs that make it "safe" to ride in a car. It also requires hastily purchased manual tie downs for $114 at the mobility van store. So Dermot hasn't left the house since September 13th when we returned from Gillette Specialty Hospital. Unless you count the one time my husband took him for a walk around our neighborhood (otherwise known as "utopia") which he admits was excruciatingly difficult from a fitting in standpoint. I'm working up my courage to take him for a walk this afternoon. We'll see how that goes. My fall as planned has not gone as planned at all. One nanny just delivered her first child (hooray for her, not hooray for the Sullivans)...