Hi Ladybug and Lola - thanks for the welcome...seemed like it was time to accept the situation as it is...and work at making of the most of what I've been dealt.
I don't know if she's still in counseling - she had an appointment about a week ago (her first) - and she went to that one - though it doesn't look like she has scheduled a follow-up...but I can't say for sure...since I'm not pushing on that front at all - as I learned (the hard way) that suggestions about C coming from me are not well received.
I like your summary of things, Lola - History, mystery, gift...the present.
Have either of your read The Time Traveler's Wife? A friend recommended it to me - there's a poem by Derek Walcott at the beginning that I'm going to memorize:
Love After Love
The time will come when, with elation you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror and each will smile at the other's welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat. You will love again the stranger who was your self. Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored for another, who knows you by heart. Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes, peel your own image from the mirror. Sit. Feast on your life.
