We'll Meet Again

I recall mentioning once before a program that I enjoy from time to time.
It is on PBS and it is Ann Curry (formerly NBC who was thrown under the bus by Matt Lauer) 
Her show is called We'll Meet Again.
I have seen men who were in Vietnam looking for someone who saved their life or a child they think they may have. I have seen many scenarios, but none that hit me like this episode did.

Wednesday evening I had some things I wanted to watch that had been recorded and put in my DVR folder. Rick wanted to watch something I had no interest in (violent) so I told him I was going upstairs to watch these shows. I kissed him, grabbed my ice water and off to the 3rd floor TV room in my comfy theatre seats. I was all settled in but halfway through I realized I should have grabbed the kleenex.
Oh my goodness.

First up was the CNN special on Gilda Radner called Love, Gilda. 
That had me shedding some tears. I love Gilda's humor and her ability to use her whole body in her comedy. A lot like Melissa McCarthy in that sense. But Gilda to me was perfection. A lot of this was in her voice from tapes she made or audiobook excerpts. 

Ovarian cancer is a silent killer. No symptoms until you normally are in the late stages of the disease and it's not good. We have pap smears annually to be proactive against uterine cancer. Why isn't the blood test of ovarian cancer given annually as well? I know a woman who had no symptoms and then one-weekend sex was painful. She asked her doctor about it. She was blown off. Told her that can happen as she ages. (she was 41)  Then she went to see another doctor who did the blood test for Ovarian cancer. (CA-125) She was positive. So other tests were done to be certain and sure enough stage 3 cancer. She has had a helluva long journey and is fine right now. But like Gilda by the time it's found it is often too late. I don't get why they don't do the test annually as they do pap smears and psa tests for men. I suppose they will say it is not 100% accurate but neither are mammograms.

Well after that was over I went into the bathroom and grabbed a kleenex. I knew Gilda died I am not sure why it hit me like that. In the old days, I'd say that I was about to start my cycle. Being all emotional like that. But that certainly isn't the issue these days.

I deleted the program and clicked on the next show and thought," oh, this will be a light show to watch next." I've got no skin in this game.
HAH!
We'll Meet Again made me an even bigger mess.
The show had 2 men looking for people who helped them. 
Both felt they had been saved by the people they were looking for. 
The men both came to the USA as they fled Cuba as children. 
One was hoping to find the family who took him in as a little boy while another man was looking for the captain of the shrimp boat who brought them to America and what he feels saved his life with his actions.

I found both stories of these men to be gut-wrenching. I kept thinking how today they would be killed at the 'border', not allowed over a "wall" and just plain not let into our shores. (figuratively speaking. I know there is no wall around the Keys) Today they would never have such an easy time to have a family take them in as the one did. Today everyone is only concerned with themselves, not others plights. 

Both men grew to be successful American men by American Standards. One was a firefighter for Mountain View California. (google headquarters) I don't recall the other gentlemans job. But both have families and have contributed to the U.S.in nothing but positive ways. Both arrived as children. Not killed or let to die in custody, but once arrived they were cared for and helped. That is what we USED to be.

Today I haven't been able to shake these stories. 
Maybe because our country has gotten so @#$! up. 
Maybe because that is all we see on TV, the vast ugliness of how people are treated by others and the neglect of anyone other than oneself. 
It takes a village they say to raise a child and that is what happened to this one young 9-year-old little boy from Cuba. He just cried and cried when he got off the boat and realized his mother wasn't coming. 
He didn't speak the language, he was frightened. How couldn't you be? 

A Catholic church began to ask families to volunteer to take them in until other family members arrive or until they can get them adopted or whatever the case may have been. This particular family scooped him up for a little less than a year. During that time he claims they were some of his best memories. It was the first Christmas tree he ever saw. He went to church, school and played and found that he wasn't thinking about his situation for 24 hours a day anymore. That family gave him such comfort, structure that was badly needed and hope. 

Both men were able to find some closure. One better than another.
But after both shows, I was drained. Several kleenexes later I was ready to go to bed. But then I couldn't stop thinking about it all. I just laid there thinking of both of these men's stories. The first show too close to home for me. The 2nd I have never had to experience anything remotely like it. I have not been pulled away from my mother at a young age, my mom died when I was a very young age. So that is so very different.  It is difficult for me to understand their pain completely, but yet I feel it and can't shake it.

Tonight I need to watch some fluff or read a funny book.
I can't let this linger.