Perspective and Such: The Screams of A Mother

I ate lunch with my husband today in the cafeteria of the children's hospital which is a part of the medical center where he works.  It's a relatively small cafeteria and has wide double doors which stay open to the hallway.

Shortly after we sat down, we heard, over the din of cafeteria employees serving food, patrons eating and talking and other cafeteria sounds, a blood curdling scream.  At first we weren't certain what was going on, and most (if not all) of the people surrounding us seemed unaffected or unaware.  That initial scream was followed by the most primal, uninhibited, from-the-depths-of-the-soul wailing and screaming that I had ever heard.  It went on for about a minute, maybe until they moved this mother to a more private, sound-proof room. 

It quickly became clear to my husband and me that a mother had just received devastating news.  I don't know if she had just found out that her child had died or if she had just learned that her child was going to die.  But we sat in silence, just looking at each other...thinking about how this life, these lives had just been changed in the most dreaded and terrifying way.

"Sobering" doesn't even begin to describe the feeling in those moments.  I know this isn't exactly and directly related to what everyone is going through here...but I did think of you girls and wanted to share this with you.