Tonight, God smiled on me. He usually smiles on His children, I'd say, but tonight he must of really shown those teeth, cause my boss let me off work early and gave me two free tickets to a Broadway show! It was awesome.
I called my roommate, Maggie, at 7pm - as soon as I found out. We were going to see LITTLE WOMEN and it turns out that they made the story into a musical. Sutton Foster plays Jo, the lead. She is phenomenal. (I saw her a few years ago when Jerrod and I came up to New York and got tickets to THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE, for which she earned a Tony.)
This classic story gets me every time, though. The four sisters have such a bond and Maggie told me later that I remind her of the quirky Jo. Maggs said she saw the tears forming in my eyes when Beth falls gravely ill. It was ironic to get to see this show, because last night when I got home late, my roommates were still awake and I told them the story of my little sister's illness - the one that left her paralyzed - the one that called our women to spend 20 days crowded into a stale hospital room. My sister eventually recovered, but the character tonight did not.
It was heart-wrenching. As they sang of death and of life going on, I thought of Maggie, sniffling so close beside me. She didn't realize it, but I overheard her tell someone on the phone once that her biological father died when she was nine. I don't know if that crossed her mind tonight, but as the mother searched for meaning in her daughter's death - as she pleaded for her LITTLE WOMEN to move on, I was thinking about Maggie - wondering what a mother says to her blue eyed children - nine year old ringlet headed girl - seven year old man of the house.
On the train home tonight, she told me a little of her story. Told of the brain cancer that ate away at the last years of her father's life. Told of the coupon cutting her mother was forced to do when hospital bills and a sudden one-income home left them little to live on. Told of the memories she still has and the ones she hates that she's lost.
I looked at her tonight, not knowing what to say, but thinking how proud her mother must be of her strong, intelligent, self-less Little Woman.
1 comment:
I cannot think (or in this case, read) of Bobbie Jo's illness and not shed tears--tears of joy for how God sent a miracle to us; tears of joy for how our family came together and our bond became stronger; tears of joy for friends and church family who stood by our sides; and tears of joy for the opportunity to truly put life in perspective. May we never take life for granted and lose sight of where our richest blessings come from.
Mom
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