This American Life (#359 Life After Death)

This episode was about people haunted by feelings of responsibility for the death of another person. Death is a pretty tough subject for me to discuss for what I think are obvious reasons, but I did pretty well listening to this show. There was one point, though, when the narrator of the first segment was telling about meeting the parents of the girl who'd swerved in front of his car on her bicycle, that was very painful to listen to. My heart just bled for everybody involved. 3 hankies

Amy Silverman & Sophie

At the risk of being self-referential, Amy Silverman (the mother from the July 30th, TAL#358 post) left a comment on that post that made me misty-eyed (1 hankie). It was touching to see that she'd been moved by my post and that she'd found my blog in the first place. She also left a link to her fantstic blog. It's beautifully written and (not surprisingly) a little heartbreaking. It really captures the joys and tears of parenting with a special needs kid.

This American Life (#358 Social Engineering)

TAL is always awesome, and usually has something touching or powerful that - of course - makes me cry. There were a couple of things in this episode.

The middle part was about Dave Dickerson and his father and an incident that happened 30 years ago when he was still a boy and a lesson his father taught him. The lesson didn't work out the way it was intended, but what Dave learned was that there can be second chances and learning that helped his father feel better about the incident. There was a very touching moment at the end of the piece that made me pretty weepy. 3 hankies

The next piece was by Amy Silverman, the mother of a daughter with downs syndrome. There was some question about how high-functioning her daughter was, but Amy still came to the realization that being her daughter's parent was going to be a life-long task. I have a daughter with severe autism who I'll likely be taking care of for the rest of my life. I don't mind that so much, but I do weep at the thought of the life that she won't be able to lead. No crushes, no boyfriends, no husbands or careers or children. No epiphanies, conversations, or passions. All I can do is keep her as happy as I can. 3 hankies