"I bought my ring on Feb 1, 2019. December and January had been particularly hard months for me, between work and my personal life. I bought this ring in the morning, deciding I would start making some changes. I got off work early, and thought I would fit in a little nap before my son got off the bus. I woke up to a phone call from my mother, telling me to come to my parents right away. It was my dad - paramedics were working on him but it wasn’t good. Two hours later, he was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
One week after his death, my grandmother went into the hospital with what started as a cold but became pneumonia and the beginning of the end for her. She had dementia, and we wouldn’t leave her alone in the hospital. I worked at my office job during the day and took care of soccer practices, dinner, and homework for my son in the evenings before leaving him with my sister to head to the hospital for the overnights with my grandmother. My aunt and mom took the day shifts with my grandmother.
The day my ring was delivered, my mother and I were in my grandmother’s room with her while she slept. My mother told me, very clearly, how much she worried about me. That I was exactly like my dad, that I wouldn’t ever tell anyone when something was wrong and worried about everyone but myself. She didn’t want me to ignore myself right into an early grave the way he did. I went home and found that ring on my doorstep, put it on, and promised myself that from that moment, I would do better."
Hilary
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