At first, I thought I misplaced it.<\/p>\n
I searched every room.<\/p>\n
The closet.<\/p>\n
The basement.<\/p>\n
The guest room.<\/p>\n
Nothing.<\/p>\n
Then I saw the message.<\/p>\n
From Emily.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom, I took the suitcase.\u201d<\/p>\n
My heart dropped.<\/p>\n
I called immediately.<\/p>\n
She answered after four rings.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmily.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMom, before you get upset\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is it?\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
\u201cI put it in storage.\u201d<\/p>\n
I couldn\u2019t believe what I was hearing.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou took my husband\u2019s things?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was trying to help.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
My voice shook.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou decided you knew better.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMom, you\u2019re surrounding yourself with grief.\u201d<\/p>\n
I closed my eyes.<\/p>\n
Because there it was.<\/p>\n
The word everyone used.<\/p>\n
Grief.<\/p>\n
Like it was something embarrassing.<\/p>\n
Something dirty.<\/p>\n
Something that should have expired.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t understand.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m trying to.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
I whispered.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re trying to make me stop missing him because watching me miss him makes you uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emily became quiet.<\/p>\n
For a moment, neither of us spoke.<\/p>\n
Then she said:<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want my mom back.\u201d<\/p>\n
That sentence broke something inside me.<\/p>\n
Because I wanted that too.<\/p>\n
But nobody told me that losing a spouse meant losing the person you used to be.<\/p>\n
I wasn\u2019t refusing to move forward.<\/p>\n
I was learning how to walk with half a heart.<\/p>\n
At first, I thought I misplaced it. I searched every room. The closet. The basement. The guest room. Nothing. Then I saw the message. From Emily. \u201cMom, I took the … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3829"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3835,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3829\/revisions\/3835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}