Monday haiku

How to heal girl's heart?
Best friend moved far, far away
-without a good-bye.


This time last week she still had hope that maybe it was a prank, maybe the bff was home sick. By Wednesday she had received a reply to her email inquiry. Sad but true. The bff had moved to CT over the weekend -suddenly & without a call or email. Poor Madster wouldn't -couldn't- eat. She cried inconsolably. She was on the verge of tears for days. I could only offer my hugs, kisses, & meager verbal attempts to allay her melancholy. It was difficult to watch, this painful lesson for a 9 year old.

How exactly does a mom help ease her daughter's breaking heart? I thought about the times I've had friends move away. Mostly it's been me who's moved. I did have my bff from high school move shortly after graduation to FLORIDA from PA. It seemed a world away. I had no real words of encouragement for my DD -nothing that I could speak of from experience as a one time nine year old. "I wish I could take away your pain," I whispered in her ear that night.

I know this is probably the first of many "heartbreaks". And it makes me want to cry to think that no matter what I do or say, she will always have to come through her experiences on her own, in her own way. (and that goes for all my girls...even the 19 yo DD who is "far" away & yet so very near...I felt the same when you had your little heart crushed for the first time in middle school -& even when you still cared for the boy for a few years after that). I guess this feeling of helplessness -this inability to fix all hurts- is just another role, another emotion, that goes with the title of "mom".