Thoughts from the sidelines

Tonight I was at my youngest son's soccer game. Zackery is turning 8 this year. He played against a boy that he played indoor soccer with and this boy, Dylan, lost his mother to breast cancer in the last month. As I looked down the sideline at the group of parents, I recognized another father sitting with his little girl, his son also playing on the same team as Dylan. I recognized this man from the church that we used to attend, and had just seen his wife's obituary in the paper this past Saturday, which was also the day of her funeral.

I can't get my mind wrapped around what it must be like to anticipate to spend the rest of your life with someone, raising your young children, and then lose that person to some disease or illness; what it must be like to make certain life-shifts because now you are the primary care-giver and have no-one to share that role and responsibility with in the same way. My heart aches for these fathers who must now raise their young children alone.

It was good to see these kids who have lost their mothers playing and interacting with other kids with smiles on their faces. I'm sure there are times when they feel keenly the pain of their loss, but for an hour at a soccer game, they're just kids who like to run and play.