Helen Robinson
âStop waiting for âwhen life settles down.â Life will never settle down.âÂ
Iâve thought of that often, as life has lurched from one catastrophic up-ending to the next. Sitting in a flooded, broken hospital in Mississippi as Hurricane Katrina raged above and windows cracked around us. That was the worst life had for me, I hoped. My daughter, born two weeks later, far too early, with far too many problems â 10 days in the NICU not knowing if she would live. That was the worst life had for me, I hoped.
My 9-year-old son â nearly killed by septic shock. I spent a month by his ICU bed, watching his monitors blindly, making desperate bargains with God. That was the worst life had for me, I hoped. My stepson died at 18. We thought weâd never get up. We got up, because that was the worst life had for us, we hoped. The COVID-19 pandemic enveloped us. And in the summer of the pandemic, my husband died.