Cory, like everyone, and especially like a typical teenager, wanted to belong. She was never the round peg, and although she wore that well, there always remained that innate need to be a fixed part of a community. She needed to be part of a club...some kind of family, outside of our home. It showed in her fevered desire for a senior hoodie with all her friends names on the back, a hoodie from the college of her choice, even a Head Start hoodie passed down from me.
Homebound classes didn't offer Cory the best sense of unity with her peer group. She was never able to take driver's education, and so there was another club to which she was denied entry.
After her second hospitalization, she came to me a little forlorn, asking if I could please go online to see if Pine Rest Psychiatric Hospital sold hoodies on their website. She asked for little. Can you feel that? So very little.
Is it any wonder it was Tim's choice to place a hoodie from his place of employment in her casket. He knew what belonging to someone - and being claimed- meant to her. She had all my love, and more, but she needed to be more than just some mother's child. That wasn't too much to ask.
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