468th Friday Blog Roundup

So there was a story on Thursday that Andy Kaufman had faked his death and was alive and well in hiding with a wife and child.  The faked-his-death idea has been around forever, but a 24-year-old woman stepped forward at the Andy Kaufman Awards this week to present herself as Andy’s daughter.

I didn’t really know what to believe when I read it in the morning.  I was trying to imagine how I would feel if my grandfather popped out of the woodwork this week and told me that he was alive and well, living under an assumed name.  I mean, on one hand, I would get to see my grandfather again.  But on the other; to know that I mourned and missed him — and he put me through that?  I don’t know if I could forgive him; if it wouldn’t irreparably change our relationship.  I’d get him back without really getting him back.

Of course, a few hours later, the identity of the girl was unearthed.  She’s an actress, and Andy’s brother recruited her for the role of Andy’s daughter.  It was just a continuation of the hoax.

Which just felt like a big drag, a letdown, a quieting.

How would you feel if you discovered someone faked their death?  Would you be thrilled to have them back in this world or want nothing to do with them after the emotional turmoil?

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The 2013 Creme de la Creme is trucking along.  There are currently 62 on the list and about a month to go until the hard deadline (December 15!).  So, are you on the list yet?  Extra love to people who submit early!

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And now the blogs…

But first, second helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week.  In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• “Remembrance Walks and Somethingness and Sorrow” (By the Brooke)
• “Living in the Moment” (No Kidding in NZ)

Okay, now my choices this week.

No Kidding in NZ has a great and thoughtful response to that longstanding statement that if you don’t have children, you don’t understand.  I’ll admit that I cracked up at the beginning when she said, “I wish I had a dollar every time I heard a parent say ‘no-one tells you how hard it is.’ …  Yes, they do.  (I want to shout).  Everyone tells you how hard it is.”  But she really gets to the heart of why people ask for empathy; and also, how we have a tendency to sometimes push it away before we can receive it.

An Unwanted Path has a wonderful (and admittedly familiar) post about being pregnant after loss.  She writes, “The day of an ultrasound? Oh, I’m okay. Peachy. Everything looks okay today.  It’s the tomorrow you have to look out for.”  I certainly related to it.  I bet a lot of other people will too.

Where Love and Chaos Reign is breaking up with infertility.  The post is tongue-in-cheek, but there is a lot of emotion contained in the kidding.  She writes, “It’s weird to think about what things look like without this relationship in my life. It’s been holding me back for a long time.”  But on December 12th, she is walking away from 10 years of family building.  It’s a wonderful post.

Lastly, Bio Girl has a beautiful post about her late sister’s wedding gift, now hanging in their window.  She is decluttering her house, and she pauses on her sister’s sign which her husband unknowingly placed in the kitchen.  You’ll need to click over to read what the plaque says.  And yes, you will become weepy thinking about the words from seven years ago to today.

The roundup to the Roundup: How would you feel if someone you knew faked their death?  The 2013 Creme de la Creme opened: is your post on the list?  And lots of great posts to read.  So what did you find this week?  Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between November 8th and November 15th) and not the blog’s main url. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week?  Read the original open thread post here.