"You can't put your arms around a memory."

[exmilitarymedic]

Who: Mhari Stanford (Sash's Mom), Shea Lancaster (Sash's Cousin) with Ava Marcus and Justin Campbell
What: Heartbreaking Obstacles
Where: Sydney, Australia
When: Few days after this

Mhari had faced a lot of terrible, traumatic days in her life, but nothing even came close to how awful it was to see her only child fighting for his life in an ICU bed after being kept from him for weeks thanks to covid. The unexpected mix of horror seeing her son so damaged, yet relief that she was finally able to get him made her feel sick to her stomach with a woozy, seasick-like nausea. Barely able to stay on her feet, all she could so was stumble to Sasha’s bedside, so gently cup his face in her hands and break down in sobs she didn’t think she even had the strength for.

This wasn’t the first time she had been through this. It took her right back to the moment she first saw her husband in the same way over a decade ago after his terrible IndyCar crash that nearly took his life and left him paralysed from the neck down. She didn’t feel like she would survive that day. The pain was unbearable and as much as she had wanted to be strong for her six year old son, she couldn’t and Sash had to see both her parents broken in ways that she knew would affect him for the rest of his life.

( What she felt today was like history repeating, but the pain was insurmountably more... )