Sugar, spice, snails, puppy dog tails

Waiting, wondering, worrying, praying...

As I worked on my computer, trying to replace hours and hours of genealogy files that my computer ate, Robert, my husband, came in the office to tell me the hostage situation in Moscow had ended. I turned on the television to find, surprisingly only on cable news stations, that no one really knew how many had been killed or who was still alive. Hours of waiting now await, hours centuries long for the friends and families waiting for news about their loved ones.

Waiting for news... whew, memories of the New York City and Washington D.C. attacks nearly overwhelm me, knowing that so many waited in vain for survivors, some in vain for remains of those unaccounted or never found... waiting to hear from my daughter who lives and works close to the Pentegon... Memories of the Oklahoma City bombing... looking at the empty desks in my classrooms as teenagers, once more becoming young children, waited at home or in the school office for news of parents... watching the names scroll by on the TV screen, hoping none would be familiar, but some were... My heart hurts for those who wait, knowing, fearing that the news will be devestating.

I know about waiting, hoping, praying, not knowing. Nearly six years ago my ex-son-in-law picked up two of my grandchildren for a visit. I have not seen them or heard from them since. Their father sent me a letter, covered with vicious, hateful words that tore a hole in my heart. "You'll never see them again," he wrote, and we haven't, not for nearly six long years. Faris, six years old then, and Meena, who was four and a half, may not remember us, their only grandparents. Still... we still wait and pray.

Oh, yes, I understand the waiting, the wondering, the worrying, the praying... nevering ending.

Viv

Sugar, spice, snails, puppy dog tails  (ASR) Jots of thoughts as they flit through the rummage of my mind. #551218 by Vivian