Posts Tagged "losing a parent"

  Keira, my five-year-old daugh­ter, whined, “I don’t want to talk to any­one,” from under her pur­ple, fuzzy blan­ket. She did not want start going to therapy. She had recently returned from school one too many times, say­ing “nobody likes me,” or “I’m not smart,” or “nobody wants to be my friend.” But that was as far as the con­ver­sa­tion ever went. She really didn’t want to talk to any­one. Not even me. I pulled the cov­ers back, expos­ing her angry, brown eyes. “That’s just it, honey. It isn’t good if you don’t talk about your feelings.” She wrapped her front teeth around the base of her thumb’s cuti­cle and chewed on the skin. “I don’t have any feelings.” “Honey, you’ll be going to see Steve....

Tatiana, my eight-year-old daugh­ter, begins to cry. “Mom-my! I’m not talk­ing to you. You are mak­ing me so sad.” Her curly blonde hair flies every­where, as if being blown by a fan. She stomps into the bath­room, slams the door, and locks her­self in. All morn­ing, Tatiana has not been lis­ten­ing, and I’m fed up with hav­ing to repeat my words six times just to be heard. Deep breath, I tell myself. I call through the bath­room door, “Honey, come out here.” To my sur­prise, she twists the knob right away, but her sobs con­tinue ris­ing like a helicopter. “Come sit here.” Tatiana curls in my lap, mak­ing her lanky body com­pact. She blows her nose on her orange sun­flower dress. “I know we’ve all had colds and that...