November 01, 2006

Empathy

My mom just called to say that she and my dad are driving to Texas to see my grandma. Grandma is back in the hospital for the 2nd time in a month and things are progressively getting worse.
I have never been very close to my mom's mom. She's a fun and sassy woman and she did a damn good job raising my mom and her 6 younger siblings, but my unhappiness today comes mostly from the fact that I can't even imagine what this must be like for my mom.
I have always had a morbid fascination with death. And an over-active imagination. Oh, and I can't forget that inflated empathy. When someone says, "Imagine how that would make you feel" I can honestly say that I do that; sometimes without even wanting to. I've gone through the deaths of all my loved ones. Planning out what it would be like, how I would react and how it would affect my life and the lives of their other loved ones.
I sometimes think this is a defense mechanism, to somehow prepare myself for the inevitable. But this 'talent' tends to get me worked up. And so here I am, getting worked up. Imagining what life would be like without my mom. Or dad, for that matter. From what I've heard, it creates a hole in your heart that is unrepairable. A numbness and loneliness that is never ending. So I try to imagine what that would feel like. That gaping hole in my heart.
Sadly, I doubt this training is going to help in the least when that moment arrives.

4 comments:

Syd said...

I don't know... you really may be on to something. I doubt it would work for everybody, but i can kinda see it.

In fact, when I lost my brother, I remember wishing that I had been a little prepared...but i didn't know what that even meant.

just...interesting.

Middle Girl said...

Imagine..it might be better than that, it might be worse..at least you would have given yourself some inkling. Like syd said..interesting.

Anonymous said...

I used to do that while my dad was slowly dying. There were nights I wished he would just die in his sleep. I thought I was prepared, I had played out every possible scenario in my head.

Then he died.

It was NOTHING like ANY of my scenarios.

But, I still play scenarios of getting mugged, raped, carjacked, etc. Who knows what that's about!

~C

Jos said...

Believe it or not, I do the same. Hence, my headaches.

I am constantly thinking and preparing mentally for such moments. Back in February, I almost lost my husband and everything I had previously thought about started to become real.

I hope your grandma gets well soon.

Jos