{"id":817,"date":"2012-03-11T20:22:01","date_gmt":"2012-03-12T00:22:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gloriacrist.com\/blog\/?p=817"},"modified":"2012-03-11T20:22:01","modified_gmt":"2012-03-12T00:22:01","slug":"grown-men-do-cry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gloriacrist.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/grown-men-do-cry\/","title":{"rendered":"Grown Men Do Cry."},"content":{"rendered":"

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I saw a grown man cry this morning.\u00a0 An 85 year old man.\u00a0 I hugged his neck and his sobs broke the sound of silence.\u00a0 His shoulders hunched over- a look of numb and deep sadness on his face. That sound of an old man crying has echoed in my heart all day.\u00a0 Our neighbor, the one who grew up in the house we renovated and became part of our New England family 9 years ago died in the middle of the night.\u00a0 She who had every essence of feisty and fierce-and she who was an in your face let’s get on with it kind of woman.\u00a0 She who had\u00a0 just one beer a day to make the day better-she who became part of our lives, she who knitted, sewed, babysat, baked and told it like it was.\u00a0 She who had just turned 82 died after a week of complications due to a ruptured spleen that none of us knew about until it was too late to do anything about it.<\/p>\n

She who said to the nurse,” Well I am shitt’in blood, how doya think I am doin?” ,when the nurse entered the beige colored room and asked in the third person,\u00a0 “How are we\u00a0 doing today?”<\/p>\n

Only two days ago.<\/p>\n

They waited to tell the old man until the morning-since he\u00a0 had already left the hospital for the night.\u00a0 Why wake him in the middle of the night?<\/p>\n

We were there shortly after for support. For comfort.\u00a0 For a while.<\/p>\n

He sat there in the chair-in the kitchen but facing the small living room. I walked over to him, hugged him and he cried.\u00a0 He let lose and cried.<\/p>\n

The sound of an old man crying.<\/p>\n

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