Does Time Really Heal All Wounds?

'Time heals all wounds' is a phrase I've heard countless times throughout my life. When I was a child, I believed it to be true. Why wouldn't I? I had no evidence to the contrary. I fell running home from school and scraped my knee, and in a couple of weeks not a trace was left of the wound. My little brother broke his leg going down the slide at the park, and several months later, you would never guess he had incurred such a serious injury. Experience and age, however, have taught me otherwise. Emotional wounds and heartaches often reach much deeper than physical wounds. They reach into our very souls. Rose Kennedy once said, "It has been said 'Time heals all wounds.' I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone". I lost my father in a plane crash two and a half years ago, and although the pain is not as intense as those first days, when I actually believed I might die from it, it is still there hiding in the back of my mind and heart, waiting to reveal itself. The pain of his loss comes at unexpected moments; when the National Anthem plays at a sporting event; in the morning when I wake from a very vivid and realistic dream about him, only to realize that it was just that... a dream. More often than not, however, the pain comes with my children's milestones and achievements; piano recitals, goals scored in hockey games, funny stories from their lives that I know he would have gotten a kick out of... moments when I know that my dad would have been so proud of them. Time has not healed my pain, but it has changed my pain. In those first days and weeks, I couldn't bear the memories. I couldn't look at a picture of him without feeling like I might fall apart. I couldn't mention him in conversation without welling up with tears. It just hurt too much. It still hurts, but I find some comfort in remembering the man he was, the father he was, the legacy he leaves behind in myself and my siblings. I still think of him every day and there is pain that comes with those thoughts. Time has not healed my wounds, but it has enabled me to find joy in the memories along with the pain.