a new normal

I didn’t even notice her. She was sitting on the other side of the room. The speaker, Jaynee, held up a beautiful tiered cake platter and showed us how she had glued silver butterflies at each edge, to cover up the chips. How clever, I think.

And then a conference worker walked right into our classroom and interrupted Jaynee in mid-sentence. She called a woman out by name, a name I can’t for the life of me remember now. But the woman stood up right away, and together they filed out of the room. Jaynee paused, and then she took a break from talking about loaf pans and how to cut crumbly cakes and she prayed for this woman that none of us had noticed before.

After the workshop, I helped Jaynee pack up all of her dishes and tablecloths. “I’m concerned for that woman,” she told me. “In all of my years speaking at Hearts at Home, if they have to pull someone out of a workshop, they always mention that it’s not an emergency so women don’t worry. She didn’t say that this time.”

A few minutes later the golf cart guy wandered in. “Will you ladies need a ride?” He asked.

“We will,” I responded.

“Do you know anything about the woman who was pulled out of my workshop?” Jaynee asked.

“Yes,” he said with a long, heavy sigh, “her husband collapsed this afternoon. He had a heart attack and died.”

We continued packing up dishes in silent, tearful prayer. And this morning, I find myself weeping again for this young mother, praying for her this Monday morning as she finds a way through the dark wilderness of grief, somehow forging out a new normal for herself and her children.