Alas, after rebooting, it would not even load my desktop. And I tried for two hours, sitting patiently waiting (at last, ending by yelling my favorite swear word, of course). Stomping out into the rain, I diverted my course from the local Best Buy (oh, how I hate the idea of those teen Geeksquaders touching my computer) to the local library to do email, print out Dell tech support numbers (which I stupidly did not bring with me for the winter) and search for local computer techs.
But my day has turned from bad to worse. Online, I could not ignore today's news of the little 11-year-old Haitian girl, whom I watched for hours the other day, as rescuers tried to free her without resorting to leg amputation. Happily, they succeeded and last I knew, she was free and alive and doing well. One of the successful and hopeful rescue stories.
However, my computer greeted me this afternoon with news that she had died an hour later of severe wounds to her leg and shoulder (how does that happen? blood loss? blod clot? a piece of bone marrow lodging in the heart? what?!?) Update: How elementary of me not to recall -- infection, of course. It's just so rare to hear of anyone in the U.S. dying from infection from a broken leg or that type of injury (Mersa, yes) because we take antibiotics for granted. And antibiotics these first days of the rescue have been undersupplied. Her last words were to her mother: "Mother, don't let me die!"
Biting my lip hard, I escaped the computer station and ran to the ladies' room. I am still undone by this turn of events and by the intensity of my reaction. (And somewhat validated to see that Campbell Brown, reporting on the story, was moved to tears as well....what mother cannot be?)
My heart is broken. For her and for her mother. How does one ever go on after something like that?
Thank you, Lord, for my son's and grandchildren's lives. I am blessed and I am grateful. Please watch over them all.
Laptop problems? Those aren't problems at all.
Not one bit.
