Wanna buy a used year? Cheap. It has all its days, but also a few dents and scratches. Watching someone you love deal with cancer redefines the idea of a day, week, and sometimes even an hour. Then, there was mother, a dear and lovely soul who could not hear, nor remember anything. Fortunately, she could not see well enough to open and read the tons of fund-raising mail, all from Republicans trying to move money from her account to theirs. Can we leave them in 2009? We couldn’t keep mom; her suffering ended with a stroke in May.
Mother died thinking, if she remembered, that her first-born was gainfully employed at a newspaper. She and Dad valued both gainful employment, and newspapers, all of their lives. 2009 shredded the newspaper industry, ending the employment for thousands of loyal and dedicated journalists. Recession next-door became depression at home. But frequent visits to the Career Center (read unemployment center) offered copious evidence that 2009 was doing far worse damage to others’ lives than mine.
And in 2009, three talented photojournalist interns served the readers of the Chattanooga Times Free Press. They were the first photo-interns at that paper, and the Chattanooga Times before it, that I did not have an opportunity to mentor and coach since the intern program began at the Times years ago. I learned from every one of them, and they helped keep me young-in-mind.
So 2009, leave this world on a dreary cloudy day and don’t look back. I’ll let the tears dry and embrace Twenty-ten’s uncertainty. And maybe I’ll figure out what I want to be when I grow up.
Tags: 2009, 2010, cancer, Chattanooga, death, economy, family, father, news, news media, son, unemployment
