Olympic Memories

Watching the  opening ceremonies I was reminded of the moments of my life that were happening during the Olympics, and how much life happened during those four-year intervals.

In 1994 I was a college freshman living in a dorm.  Only a couple of girls on my floor had televisions, so every night several of us would pile into a friend's tiny room to watch figure skating.  That was the year of  Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan, so there was lots of drama.  It was such a fun way to watch the games.

By 1998 I had married and graduated college and was pregnant with PS (wow, a lot happened during those 4 years). I had severe hyperemesis and was bedridden on IV fluids. We had no cable and pretty much the only thing to watch on television during that time was the Olympics.  I don't have such great memories of those games.

I have little memory of the next couple of games--probably because I was busy with little kids and going to school. In 2002 the twins were infants.  Their whole first year is an exhaustion induced blur. A short four years later in 2006 I was in my 2L year--I definitely wasn't watching much television then.

And then, the 2010 Olympics. Those happened while MIL was dying.  We watched an awful lot of the games while sitting in hospice.   Those several weeks were among the worst we have ever endured (topped only possibly by my horrific pregnancy with the twins), but I also remember it as a time of the entire family coming together and receiving so much generosity from friends, family and even near strangers.

It seems hard to believe that another four years has passed.  It is harder to believe that MIL has been gone for almost four years now.  We still haven't gotten over the unfairness of it. And after all our togetherness while at hospice, the family was torn apart just a few months later by FIL's hasty remarriage and those tears still haven't been repaired.

I'm left wondering what will happen over the next four years.  PS will graduate high school and be in college.  TT and SS will be juniors in high school.  Where will our careers take us?  How will our family change?  How many more family members will we lose?