Day Two: The Beginning

Looking back on it, I can see now that it wasn't quite as stealthy as I initially thought when it happened. Everything began on a Sunday in February of 2013. It was an ordinary Sunday and our family was driving home from Mass. The day was cold enough for a jacket and long sleeves, but not freezing. The sun was shining in a clear blue sky with only a few white fluffy clouds scudding along. It could not have been a more lovely, happy looking day. The earth was turning as it always has since creation began, but then everything shifted. I felt the sun dim and the sky fill up with gray clouds. The change happened so dramatically that I was dumbstruck by it and felt very much as though I'd been hit over the head with a sledgehammer of depression.