The Sky is Falling

October 22, 2008

I awoke early in the morning to the sound of what I thought was Aly taking a shower before school. It was one of those, ‘geez, I can’t believe it’s morning already’ feelings and I rolled over, dozed and fell back asleep. Then awoke suddenly several minutes later still hearing the shower. Terrified, I had thoughts of her being passed out in the shower and jumped up quickly, running down the hall to her bathroom. All the lights were out- she was still asleep and the house very dark and quiet, except for the sound of running water.

I flicked on the living room lights and then I saw it was raining. Inside. Raining inside my living room! I watched water pour from the overhead light and ceiling fan, and from newly formed spouts in the ceiling. The wet ceiling bowed. I quickly ran upstairs and turned off the water to the overflowing toilet and raced back to Aly’s room to awake her. Sharing tragedy always seems to help.

I thought the ceiling would fall down on us and was trying to save the leather furniture, franticly pushing and shoving things back the best I could. She quietly said, ‘let’s pop the bubbles” forming on the ceiling– and therefore take control of the uncontrollable. We gathered all our pots and pans and she climbed up and created a small drain hole. Water gushed through the outlet and for the next hours we emptied the pots as they filled, until the drips were only drips and not free flowing water anymore.

This taking control of the uncontrollable saved the furniture, the ceiling and the carpets. Yes, they were a bit wet, but we were able to dry them off. Exhausted from our night of work, we slept in. Later in the day we reassessed the damage. It was much less than anticipated. The floors had mostly dried, the carpet is barely wet under the spread of towels and blankets. The furniture cleaned possibly better than before the unwanted ’shower’. We have some holes in the ceiling, six actually, however it’s intact, now dry and really in pretty good shape. I don’t even notice any true water spots.

I couldn’t help but think of how closely it parallels with cancer tragedies. We find out and panic, and quickly share our misfortune. Things always feel worse in the dark of night and daylight always sheds some new hope. Sometimes we do nothing and the worse happens. The sky literally falls and the ground crumbles beneath us. Sometimes we take measures in our own hands and try to at least control the uncontrollable. And in the end we all have scars, we are forever changed. Nonetheless, sometimes we can starve off the inevitable ’sky is falling’ until another day and sometimes, sometimes the sky never falls–it just stays intact with its scars.

Sometimes.