sisters

Yesterday I shot the dedication of a newly finished 9/11 memorial garden. It was a heartbreaking and tear jerking ceremony. It went down perfectly.

Afterwards I went over to one of the widows, who I happen to know casually. I had taken a photo of her and did not know who the woman she was standing with was. I had to be able to ID both the ladies for the paper. It turned out that the other woman was the sister of the lady that I kind of know and I struggled and struggled because I wanted to tell the lady that I kind of know how glad I was for her that she had a sister to go through what she went through with. I wanted to tell the lady how having my own sister by my side during the past 3 awful months made everything a little less horrible and helped me keep perspective and vent and heal and cry and sort things out and laugh and hold my hand at grandma's funeral and everything.

But I didn't think that I could find the words to say it the right way and I was afraid that she would somehow hear me comparing losing her husband and the father of her children in a terrorist act to what I have been through and not hear that what I really wanted to say which was that I know how comforting and wonderful it can be to have a sister when times suck and that I was happy for her that she had a sister too.

In the end I didn't say anything about her sister, only what I hope was supportive to her when she talked about her kids and how they are coping with what happened to their dad.

Comments

[danelle]

You are a kind, graceful person. I'm sure whatever you said reflected that.