Member-only story
We’re fortunate to have good weather where I live. Better than that of most of the country.
We’re in the rainy season right now, which usually runs from November to February. This weekend, as predicted (I try to ignore weather predictions; predicting weather seems about as fruitful as predicting the economy), we had some rain.
I was awakened by the gentle pitter-patter of raindrops falling on roof and ground.
Each day I awake with a feeling I’ve been gifted, for I’m now older than the average age of my parents when they passed.
My father died from cancer.
My mother?
Perhaps from a broken heart.
We don’t know for sure.
A broken heart isn’t just folklore.
There actually is a broken heart syndrome, aka takotsubo (Japanese for ‘octopus pot’) syndrome. This occurs when a person experiences sudden acute stress that can rapidly weaken the heart muscle. While not necessarily fatal, it can be serious.
Interested readers can learn more about it here:
