In my last post I shared with you the suggestions I had given to a woman with two young children who, because of her illness often feels shock waves of pain throughout her body when her children touch her ( here’s the link to that post). Donna recently replied to my email and told me more about her situation.
She said that her daughter (she has a boy and a girl) has a serious, painful medical condition and may need major surgery. On top of that, Donna recently injured her back at work and she and her family are facing the possibility that her husband’s job may be eliminated. But she made it clear that what was upsetting her the most was the fact that physical contact with her children, contact that she wanted to have and knew they needed, caused her tremendous pain.
After reading Donna’s email, I had a couple of additional suggestions that I shared with her. I told her that it was clear to me that she was a very caring and compassionate mother who would do anything she could for her daughter. Then I said that given that she was very compassionate, I wanted her to look in the mirror and have lots and lots of compassion for the person she saw, since that person is someone’s daughter and she needs and deserves much compassion.
I also told Donna that for what she did for her children everyday in spite of her own illness and pain, she deserved a Medal of Valor. I said that maybe her husband would get her one if she showed him my email, but if not, she should get one for herself. Then once she got it, she should hang it on the wall so that she doesn’t forget what a heroine she really is.
If she follows my suggestion, and I hope she does, I’m going to ask her to send me a picture of her medal so I can add it to this post.
