I really don’t try to incorporate diabetes into every facet of life. Really, I don’t.

It just happens.

Take Maeve’s homework assignment last night. Her assignment was to “bridge” or connect the story she was reading to something she could relate to in her own life.

The only problem was …

“Dad, I don’t know what to write. I’ve never been alone in a forest during an earthquake like those two boys. And you and mom never had to leave us alone because mom broke her ankle and had to go to the hospital like the mom in Earthquake Terror.

I thought for a second and told her that I remember a time when mom and dad had to rush to the hospital in an emergency and leave her alone with her aunt.

“When Charlie got diabetes?”

“Bingo!’

We started brainstorming and decided that Charlie’s diagnosis with diabetes was sort of like an earthquake when it hit. It shook our family.

Thinking out loud and muttering under my breath, I said, “things were crumbling all around us.”

“Dad.”

“Everything was falling apart,” I continued.

“Dad.”

“Cans of soup were dropping from kitchen cabinets onto our heads.”

“DAD!!!”

“Huh?”

“Come on, it wasn’t that bad.”

I guess I was getting carried away.

But we do still feel the aftershocks.

Every day.