Reality check

Sometimes reality comes crashing down on us in a horrible way. Right before Thanksgiving my co-worker's stepdaughter had a baby. At that point Peter told me that he'd still never seen a baby as cute as Sam and that his daughter was mad about him saying that, even in jest.

Shortly after this, Cheryl wasn't feeling well and ended up in the emergency room where they discovered her c-section incision was infected and that she had sepsis. The day before Thanksgiving she was put into a medication-induced coma and put on total life support to fight for her life.

She didn't make it. She died yesterday leaving a husband, a newborn son, a five year old son, her parents, and grandmother.

I've never met her or anyone in the family other than Peter but I can't get them out of my mind. Childbirth in the US is taken for granted and it's very rare to hear about maternal death. As she was struggling I remained optimistic that she would pull through because that's the way these stories always turn out, right? But she didn't. I can't imagine how her family feels right now. Well, I can but I find myself trying to avoid thinking about the implications for her and her family.

That poor baby who will have a hard time making sense of the fact that he'll never know his mother. Will he blame himself even though there was nothing he could do to change what happened?

Her five year old can't understand why his mommy went into the hospital but is never coming home.

The father who was likely envisioning this as an exciting and happy time, a time when they were to be enjoying the new addition to the family over the holiday season. Instead, heartbreak and a difficult future.

Her mother, oh I can't imagine how it feels to lose a child.

And Peter who treated her like his own daughter.

They've got a very hard road ahead. They're in my thoughts.