A 52-Hertz Whale by Bill Sommer Read Free Book Online Page A

move out and go to college? In the meantime, spend time with her and when she’s busy, pick up one of those hobbies we’ve all given up over the years! (For me, it’s piano. I practice for an hour three days a week now.)
    Ellen Crompton
    From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Date: October 2, 2012 at 6:17 PM
Subject: RE: Help!
    Yes, I agree wholeheartedly! Completely set aside your own desires for fulfillment to become a parental robot that recharges by spending three hours a week doing something just fun enough that you’ve gone years without doing it. (Ooh, if only they had sarcasm font!) Look, A and E, happy kids have happy parents. Yes, you have to be careful about bringing this man into your daughter’s life, and you’re going to have some complicated feelings about your late husband, and dating is, no doubt, a royal pain in the ass. But you know what, difficult and complicated things sort of come with the territory of being . . . AN ADULT!
    But that does not mean you have to be a lonely martyr. Love is for everyone, and a piano isn’t a man (though I’ve met some pianos with a lot better personalities than some of the men I’ve met since Teddy passed).
    Melissa Greenberg
    From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Date: October 2, 2012 at 8:54 PM
Subject: RE: Help!
    Hi Arianna,
    Um, not weighing in on either side here except on one thing. You said you “THINK you MIGHT like him.” But the sentence before that you used the phrase “beautiful eyes with lashes as long as a fawn’s.” I’m no Sigmund Freud, but one thing’s for sure, you like him! (What you do about that is your call, though.)
    Karen Eastman
    From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Date: October 2, 2012 at 8:21 PM
Subject: RE: Help!
    I’m not one to chime in on group emails, but I can’t keep quiet. We’ve been talking a lot in group about the five stages of grief and how everyone moves through them at a different speed. Therefore, I don’t think it is anyone’s place to judge Arianna’s decision to go on a couple of dates. I introduced David to my boys after our third dinner together. That’s just me. I believe in being completely honest with children; they are little people after all. I didn’t know then if David and I would spend the rest of our lives together. Heck, I still don’t. But he’s a good guy and the boys were actually relieved when he started hanging out with us on weekends. Life began to get back to normal again. We started to go to ball games, movies, water parks, synagogue, etc. as a family. My mom finally went home after a nine-month-long shiva and that was a good thing for all of us. She’s the kind who would have kept the mirrors covered indefinitely.
    I knew I made the right decision to let David into our lives back in June. David took us to the Devon Fair and my youngest was all smiles, holding this stuffed bear that David won for him. I could tell that something was on my LO’s mind. So I asked if everything was okay. “I love Daddy,” he said, “but I don’t want to be sad anymore.” And you know what? Neither do I.
    Regards,
    Louisa
    From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Date: October 2, 2012 at 8:37 PM
Subject: RE: Help!
    Dear Arianna—
    I don’t know how much I have to contribute to this discussion, given that I don’t have any kids. But it does occur to me from my background in psychology that introducing someone to the kids who then ends up leaving their lives at some point could reactivate their grief and contribute to an ongoing sense of instability and loss in their worlds.
    Sincerely,
    Susan
    From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Date: October 2, 2012 at 9:02 PM
Subject: RE: Help!
    As a reminder, one of the “ground rules” of group is non-judgment. I believe our listserv should