Light and Laughter from the New Norm
This post was originally published on Corrina’s Caringbridge site: https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/corrina
Hello from HQ of Heal Team-C!
We'd like to give a HUGE thank you to Nicole Annatone, MaryEllen Manship, Kaitlin Voglesong, Donna Frustere, Jenny Schwab, Jill Konopka, Kristen Jones, Julie Goldstein and all the extended members of Heal Team-C who rallied and sweated out their support for both Corrina and Claudia at the Workout for Wellness fundraising event thrown at New York Sports Club in West Hartford yesterday.
The level of care and giving that defines our community continues to astound and strengthen us. We are incredibly touched by the effort shown by Corrina’s friends, family, students, even people with whom she didn’t have much direct contact with in your ability to organize and unite to remind us that we are not alone through this process.
With that in mind, I'd like to provide an update that doesn't focus on the uphill battles and medical events of this journey, but rather offers a glimpse (and reminder) of Corrina's beautiful, unwavering spirit which you all know and probably miss since Corrina was a constant presence in so many of your lives.
Like us, the floor has dropped out from you too. We’re all feeling this change. But while the intensity of our immediate experience may be greater, we also get the nourishing benefit of experiencing Corrina’s shining light every day. And that light hasn’t diminished in the least.
To some extent, the physical, verbal, and cognitive challenges that Corrina is now bouncing back from have distilled her energy into an even purer form, sweeter than before (if that was even possible). Corrina has always been sunshine embodied. None of that has diminished. If anything, it has just shifted in nature and grown softer.
Everyday, we laugh HARD. Corrina cracks us up with her new ’no filter’ approach and her grammar choices as she builds back her full vocabulary. I’ve coined these epics “Corrinaisms” - profound sayings she’ll drop out of the blue that take the form of ultra- formal, VERY-proper english (Chaucer would be proud) . She even surprises and amuses herself with these grandiose takes on the mundane.
Maybe there’s something to that. The simplest statements in our lives have become profound, deep bursts of significance. It’s not just a new perception we have on the same things. There is no ’sameness’ to us anymore. It’s not that we have finally learned not to take things for granted (although we have). It is the reality of our new normal which is truly profound. It’s the fact that Corrina is different. We’re all different and, although life is filled with new sadness, it is also filled with new joy. Laughing over the simple; connecting in new ways that don’t require HUGE statements or actions - just being together, loving without fear of judgement.
There is no light like Corrina’s. And to see that reflected back from all of you reminds us that we are walking through this journey together, united in love, with fear in control.
It is our profound hope that we can all be back physically together in some form or another in the very near future.
Love always, David (Jr.)
