BLESSINGS
A monologue
By Tara Meddaugh
Ian attends a Grief Counseling Group Session and speaks to the other participants. He confronts the whispered notion that it was a blessing that he and his wife did not have children before she died.
DETAILS:
Genre: Drama
Running time: Approximately 2 minutes
Cast: Male (could be female)
Age range: Adult
Time Period: Contemporary
Setting: A grief counseling group session
Excerpt below:
_______________
IAN
Oh, people say it all the time. It’s behind my back, or in the corner of the room, so they think I don’t hear. My wife is dead so my heart is broken but my ears work fine. So I hear them say it—it’s not just one person—it’s a lot of people, my friends and coworkers and even family members. It must console them to be able to say it to each other. To try to find something good about her death. “Thank God at least they didn’t have children.”
(pause)
But, you know. She had me. She left me behind.
(pause)
And maybe if I had children, I could share some of this, this crippling pain with them, and maybe spreading it out between a few people would make it more…bearable. But that’s bad to say, I guess. Why share pain with someone else when you can absorb it all yourself? Maybe I would understand that self-sacrificing concept better if I were a father. But—END OF EXCERPT
Click below for the complete digital copy of the monologue, Blessings, by Tara Meddaugh: