Wow! I can’t believe how fast time has gone by since my last post. I am sorry to all of you for not posting sooner, but we have been so busy wrapping up marching band season that it has felt like that’s all I’ve been doing for the last two months!
So, since we have wrapped it up, I thought I would share with you about Abby’s show this year. This year’s show had extra meaning for her. The title of the show was “Shattered”, and the tagline was, “Sometimes, even when something seems shattered, it can be put back together again.”
Before I dive into this much more, let me say that this year’s band was excellent! The show was more advanced than last year’s show, and they performed it flawlessly. There were a number of first year players this year, and if this was any indication of the next few years, they will be unbeatable.
Having said that, let’s talk about Abby. The show was all about picking yourself back up when life has knocked you down. Of all the kids that were on that field, Abby probably understood this more than anyone else. Almost four and a half years ago, Abby’s world came crashing down around her when her birth mother died unexpectedly. When that happened, she didn’t just lose her mother, Grubby and I uprooted her from her biological grandmother’s house in Florida and moved her to Virginia. She was not very happy at first: she missed her cat, she didn’t want to go to public school, and she didn’t have any friends here. She hadn’t even had her OWN room in our house because we saw her so rarely. She stayed in the guest room when she visited us.
One of her first weekends here, we took a trip to Charlotte to go to IKEA, where we let her pick out her furniture for her room, and we let her choose what color she wanted it painted. She chose a Tiffany blue, and we picked out new furniture, new bedding, new curtains, the whole nine yards. After Grubby and I painted her room, I spent one very long day assembling furniture and setting her room up.
She started school and began to make friends, and she even liked her school, even though it was a public school. Her teachers were very good with her, getting her engaged with the other students, and enjoying watching her learn new things. Then, seven months later, everyone’s world came crashing down when Covid-19 forced the schools to close and many of us to work from home. She and I spent a lot of time together during those months because as a Deputy, Grubby couldn’t work from home.
We even found a new home and moved over the summer, which meant that Abby was going to start school in another new school, since we were across the county in a different district than her old one. And school was still not back to normal. They were on a hybrid schedule, so they were virtual three days a week and in-class two days a week. Despite all of that, she made new friends, and she loved her school! She began to break out of her shell and started asserting her independence, mostly with the clothes she wore, but she also wanted to cut her hair shorter, so she didn’t have to deal with it too much.
Seven months later, her world came crashing down around her again when Grubby died. She didn’t know what that meant for her future: was she going to get to stay with me or would she have to move back to Florida? She chose to stay here with me. I don’t think either of us realized at the time how great of an influence this decision would be for us, but it has been huge. I know that people thought I would pack up and leave since Grubby was the reason I moved up here in the first place, but we love our home, and she was happy in school, so why would we leave? She has done better and better in school, and she has thrived here. She has been through more than any kid her age should ever have to go through. She’s been through more than any kid should ever have to go through. Her smile is real, and it comes from within, and I get to see it most of the time.
So, this year, when she took the field for the show, she carried the knowledge that, in spite of all that she had been through over the past few years, she did it with a smile and with a strength of character that not many adults possess. As I watched her march from the sidelines, the tears came because I though of all that Grubby is not here to see, but then, for the pride I felt watching Abby’s life slowly being pieced back together. It may not be the life either of us had planned, but it is the life that we have chosen, so we keep putting one foot in front of the other and building a new life.
If you would like to watch her show, you can do so here:
Perfect! Very Impressive.
WOW Very Good, Thanks for sharing.