A Summer of Unfortunate Events

My wife noted that his may be the first year we are enjoying Fall more than Summer.

Summer is supposed to be when the weather, a lighter workload, and vacation all come together. Instead, Yulia went through two rounds of brutal antibiotics for a stomach infection, work was from hell. The temperature was in the 90’s most of the time (totally unheard of for Seattle). Our time off was “A Vacation of Unfortunate Events“.

Then things got bad.

Yulia’s mom had surgery for a tumor on her kidney. That went OK, but the didn’t feel right afterwards. Then she fell and broke her hip. Things rapidly declined, and despite being in a great hospital back in Moscow. She passed away within a few weeks. It was absolutely heartbreaking. A couple of weeks later my grandfather passed away. At least he was 98 and went peacefully. But that doesn’t make it better.

Life is hard, and sometimes things go wrong. But when so much hits you at once, it really tests you. I think we were fortunate that we have a great family and great friends around us. Your group is your best support network.

It’s October now. The weather has cooled off, we’ve had time to collect ourselves. Sasha is back in school at UW, and things are going well. We moved from Redmond to Renton, and we are starting to like things down her a lot more. There’s a great downtown on the upswing, and while Redmond was a bit stuck up from all the money, people are a lot more neighborly here. The (small) downtown even has a video arcade that serves beer, and a new German pub. Yulia’s mom would have loved that.

So you can never take life at face value when things are down. Things will bounce back up again if you let it.