Monday Scribblings Challenge

I’m a day late on this (just found it on Thinking About . . .) – it was a Sunday Scribblings Challenge [ http://sundayscribblings.blogspot.com/ ]

Who have I had to say goodbye to? What kinds of goodbyes?

When I was in second grade, I had to say goodbye to a classmate who was playing hooky from school one day and was found strangled with an extension cord - by guys who robbed his parents’ house. I had no real concept of what that meant at the time . . . but as the years went on, I gradually grasped the enormity of what happened. How horrible and scary and unfathomable . . . he was only 7 years old . . .

I had to say goodbye to the few girl friends I had in elementary school, when I left a year early to go to Doogie Howser.

I said goodbye to a neighbor family who had three little girls, two of whom were the same age as my sister and I, who moved to Eastern Maryland because of the father’s job. We had had many years of slumber parties and outings and trips and dinners at each others’ houses – all of which came to an abrupt end in 1983.

I said goodbye to all of my friends and classmates at Doogie Howser and everything I knew, when my family moved to Virginia right before my junior year of High School when my dad’s job transferred down here. It is a goodbye that, in some ways, I still struggle to deal with even today.

I said goodbye to my Grandpa in 1987. He was only 62 years old when he died. I miss him still.

I said goodbye to high school later that year. I was not ready. I was not happy. I did not feel closure, being in the strange land . . .

I said goodbye to my other grandfather and grandmother. We were not close, I was one of many, many grandchildren.

I said goodbye to many friends I met in the workplace – people who come into your life, hang out together, forming after-work bonds that sometimes last well past your time at that particular office, but always somehow growing apart and disappearing from the scene. I miss all of you.

I said goodbye to other friends who move away and lose contact, due to life changes or whatever. I miss you guys too.

In 2000, I had to say goodbye to a little person who hadn’t some into the world yet. It is amazing how that goodbye changes one’s world view . . . you learn that no matter how much you try, there are certain things in this life that you cannot stop from happening.

So many goodbyes I have said . . . so many more that I must say in the future . . .