“Stacy cries at a rough McDonalds commercial”
My daughters and I recently had our old home videos transferred onto a flash drive and decided it was time to watch them. I was excited to see my now grown children back when they were young. I did have mixed feelings about seeing my husband, who has been gone for eight years. I was unsure if this would make the three of us happy or sad.
I held my breath as the first video appeared on the screen. There we were – my husband and I as a young couple with our first newborn baby. I let my breath go. This was nice to see.
About two minutes in, the young me on screen became emotional about our new baby daughter, which was typical for me. That was when my husband said to the camera, “Stacy cries at a rough McDonalds commercial”.
I was immediately taken back to being much younger when, yes I did cry at everything, including a rough McDonalds commercial. Every time I would become teary, that statement came out of his mouth, which would instantly make me laugh.
The voice, the face, the statement, brought back a flood of memories that I had not thought of in a very long time.
We continued watching our old home videos for hours; birthday parties, vacations, dance recitals etc. I loved seeing my girls grow up on screen.
Viewing ourselves as a young family was bittersweet. It made me think about what could have been and what should have been. The constant thought in my head was that there should be four of us watching these old videos, not three.
Though it was hard, I did not shed one tear. I no longer cry at “a rough McDonalds commercial”. I actually haven’t cried at much of anything in recent years. My theory is that I cried myself out a long time ago.
At the end of the hours of old home videos, I looked next to me at my older daughter who was crying, literally bawling. Because she had been laughing only a moment earlier, I was taken aback to see this.
“Maybe we shouldn’t have watched,” I said to both my girls. “Maybe it was too much.”
Through her tears, my daughter smiled at me, “No I’m glad we did. I loved seeing all of this but it’s just emotional.” Her sister echoed her sentiments.
Yes it was emotional, but I was also glad that we have these treasured memories.
A week later, my daughters and I binge-watched “Fuller House”, which is a reboot of an all-time favorite sitcom of ours, “Full House”.
The Tanner girls, in history repeating itself, move in with the older sister DJ to help out with her children after her husband passes away. Father dying, family and friends helping out – something my girls and I can relate to.
In classic sitcom fashion, DJ, Stephanie and Kimmy (not Michelle – Kimmy) all get their happy endings at the end of the series and have a triple wedding. The last scene is when the girls move away from each other.
“Mom, are you crying?”
OMG I was crying!! I didn’t cry from being taken back in time from my own old home vidoes but Fuller House brought me to tears??
My conclusion is that it was a delayed reaction.
I can almost hear my husband saying, “Stacy cries at a rough Fuller House episode”.
Stacy was a stay-at-home mom/part-time preschool teacher whose life was turned upside down in 2011 when her husband passed away suddenly of a heart attack. She is raising her two fabulous daughters, now ages 18 and 20, who are turning into wonderful young women. In 2016, she started a blog about her experience as a young widow, The Widow Wears Pink. This led her to write for other publications including Huffington Post, Today.com, Scary Mommy, Grown & Flown, Kveller, Modern Loss, Thought Catalog, and many more. In 2018 she started Living the Second Act with fellow writer Mimi Golub. Today, Stacy and her daughters are happily living their “new normal” while always keeping her husband’s spirit alive.
