Just Keep Going.

I just read a recent blog post from SadieC http://notesfromanordinarylife.blogspot.com/  and I was reminded of a time when I felt exactly how she seems to feel just now.

My grandson's 18th birthday party.

The year was 2001, the month, September.  My daughter was pregnant with her son who was due mid September.  To be honest, I can't remember all the dramas of that year but I know hubby's dad died very suddenly and unexpectedly the previous year and I know we had not expected our daughter aged just 20 to get pregnant when she did but we got on with it as you do.  Then the biggie struck.  9/11.  One of those moments in time when you remember where you were, what you were doing and how you felt.  I was at work in an attic office in a park in Glasgow.   There was only myself and one volunteer in the office just after lunchtime.  The boss had gone home early and the officers were all out on site.  When the first plane hit the towers, the volunteer (strangely the one thing I cannot remember of that day is her name!) shouted me to come down to see her tiny tv in the caretakers room.  We stood in awe, tears rolling down our faces as we watched the replay and horror unfold before us.  We both decided to go home.  I called the boss, told him what had happened and went home.   Hubby arrived home just as I did and we sat for the rest of that day and watched in horror as it all unfolded before us on the t.v.  We were horrified, we were dumbstruck and we cried.   I found it hard to stop crying and when my daughter came in I hugged her like I'd never let go and I remember to my shame, saying to her, 'what a horrible horrible world to bring a baby into'.  My daughter was the one who comforted me and said, this will pass, the baby will grow up and the world will move on. How could we move past this type of horror I wondered, it was a step too far.  It felt like the end of the world as we know it.  I found it very hard to get over it and it was only when my grandson was born on the 25th September I was able to feel more positive again.   I felt so helpless and as if nothing good could ever happen again but that birth made all the difference and confirmed life does go on and becomes 'normal' again.   Life did indeed change for everyone who flew anywhere.  Security in airports became the norm.  Having to take all liquids etc in little bags became the norm.  Being questioned much more thoroughly at immigration became the norm.  Seeing armed police in airports in the UK became the norm.  But we all accepted it as normal and continue to do so and my grandson did indeed grow up into the handsome, bright young almost 19 year old man my daughter predicted.
Life does go on for most.  As it will for us again.  It might be a new normal.  We might not like it but we'll accept it - eventually.  A quote from 'Ducky' in NCIS - 'when one is going through hell, one must keep going'  that's what we have to do, just keep going till we get out. xx