Was there ever a time in your life you felt all alone?

 

This is my friend, Christine.

Yea, she’s gorgeous !

She was an acquaintance of mine in high school.

I always remember her to be very friendly and very popular.

Her name, to me, was always “CHRISSY HUBER”

I got to know her better when she and I had daughters in the same nursery school… back in 2003 or so. Our daughters also danced at the same dance studio. Our girls were very cute together and they even had a few  “play dates”.

I remember Christine would often have her mother in the car with her when it was time for  nursery school pick-up. It was obvious she was very close with her mom.

Christine lives in the same small town in which she was born and raised. (Port Ewen, NY)

She is happily married and has 3 gorgeous kids.

I eventually became Facebook friends with Christine back in 2008.

Once I became FB friends with Christine, I began to learn some additional things about her.. Mostly fantastic, happy, funny, interesting things…; including some of her funny life experiences .

One example is the time (maybe more then once) that she was on line at a very busy grocery store and dropped a large bottle of soda on the floor and it exploded all over the place. It was very embarrassing for her, yet hilariously funny to all that read her Facebook post.

I learned that her husband works many hours and he works his tail off for his family. He owns a restaurant. Christine is very accepting and appreciative of that.

I learned that she has a few weekly rituals that are important for her to maintain. One is to clean her house on Fridays and finish her Friday nights off with Pizza and wine. The other ritual is that it is important that she attends church. She attends church  quite regularly.

Christine has a busy schedule that involves a lot of driving her kids around to places. I know when I read about her daily drop off and pick up adventures, I could always relate. That struggle of trying to work out the timing of it all. Sometimes having to be at 3 places at once… I do it, too and it’s exhausting at times. I would often pass Christine on the road , and waive, as we both were doing our afternoon thing with the kids.

Here are some other very important things you all need to know about Christine…..

She absolutely LIGHTS UP A ROOM when she is in it. Like more than anyone else I ever met… It’s that strong !!…Ask anyone who knows her ….. Her laugh is infectious. She’s bubbly, she’s gorgeous, and she’s sincere.. She is always in the middle of some sort of situation that is comical, always laughing, and she’s always around other people…Always busy with something….

She even walks with a bounce in her step . It just goes with her personality .

Here is an example of how much fun Christine is…. There is a business in the area that schedules events focusing on make-overs for women (which includes a relaxing massage and professional photo shoot.) The management of this company got to know Christine and absolutely fell in love with her. From what I know, I am pretty sure they CREATED a position with in the company just so Christine could be there to greet the women as they got “made over” and photographed. They knew Christine was the perfect person to keep that exciting vibe going all day long.

There is one additional thing I need to point out. One thing I noticed… more recently… about Christine …….by reading her facebook posts…

She is struggling with something. She doesn’t come right out and share her problem or problems, but she seems sadder than normal. She never really let it be known what it is.. but it’s there…..I can tell….

Christine is not an overly private person by any means, but she also knows where the line is……I am the same way……

I decided that I wanted to feature Christine in my blog and so I came up with a question for her…….

Here is my message I sent to Christine’s Facebook inbox…, which also includes the question I asked her….

I know you have a lot of friends and have a very close family. You have your friends at work. You have your hometown friends from years past, and new friends from recent years .. I know you have your husband and 3 children .. So you are always around people and always busy ..
With that being said … my question for you would be this …
“Was there ever a time in your life that you felt all alone ?”

Here is Christine’s answer…

This is a great question!!! I am surrounded by many great friends and family… this is true. So you would think that I could never EVER feel all alone. Not true!

What some may not know about me is that I am an only child. There are not too many of us around and sometimes… I do feel All ALONE!
As a child, when all my friends would go home to their brothers and sisters.. I would go home to my parents. Don’t get me wrong, they were great but they were parents. Not brothers or sisters. When my parents were busy doing normal chores, it was just me. It was then, I felt ALL ALONE.
I felt all alone my Freshman year of college. Missing my parents, missing a boyfriend at home and crappy room mates… that was a recipe for disaster. I subsequently failed out after that 1st year. I totally felt alone being the ONLY one I knew that ever failed out of a college. That August, when every one of my friends were getting ready to go back to college and I wasn’t… I felt ALL ALONE!
As a new mother, there were times where I felt alone. My husband was working ungodly hours at his pizza place… basically only coming home to do paper work, banking, catch an hour or so of sleep and shower and then go back to work. I had friends and my parents and my in laws but when Robbie (our oldest) wouldn’t go down for a nap or cried incessantly when his little teeth were coming in or for some unknown reason he broke out in hives which made him look like Yoda from Star Wars… I felt ALL ALONE!
Currently, I am feeling alone in dealing with my mom’s illness. She has been suffering from Dementia for the better part of 6 years, now. I have no siblings to help or talk to when she is having a particularly bad day. My Dad is her primary care giver and he is the strongest man I know. It’s so hard to watch someone you love deteriorate and harder still to watch my Dad having to be a total caregiver in his golden years. My Dad is my hero and most definitely feels all alone way more than me.. and yet he still carries on! He is my hero!
I know everyone experiences these kinds of loneliness in life and by no means am I seeking sympathy! In the times I have listed above… and countless others… although I felt totally alone, I was not.

Not only did I have my greatest friends and my most cherished family… I had my faith. In those darkest of days, after crying and feeling sorry for myself for a bit… I gave my loneliness to God. I asked and prayed for help in getting me through my rough times and you know what? He ALWAYS saw me through. My most cherished gift my parents and Grandparents gave me was my faith. Without it, I may not be here today.
So, in short… I have had times where I felt totally alone but my faith helped me through. I hope to instill that in my children’s lives, too.
Thank you for asking me this question.  It was a nice reminder that I am never truly ALL ALONE!

________________________

I am surprised and saddened at the number of times in her life she felt that way.

This is a good reminder that you can never tell what a person is struggling with. If they look beautiful and happy on the outside, it does not mean that they are doing well on the inside.

Thank you for answering my question with such honesty, Christine.