I can remember that in Fifth Grade, our teacher, Mr. Liggett, brought a TV in and we watched the broadcast of the space shuttle, Challenger, as it lifted off. We saw it all...the explosion. I can remember sitting there in disbelief. Now I wonder what Mr. Liggett felt, that certainly wasn't what Mr. Liggett had planned for us that day. I can't really remember much more about it than that and I'm not sure if I really soaked it all in. But I do remember that event.
I can still remember where I was when one of my best friends told me her parents were getting a divorce. I think we were in Junior High School. We were standing on Main Street walking back to the high school. I can picture the very spot on the sidewalk. Up until that point, none of my friends' parents had divorced. It was unheard of. Even going on through high school, I can't recall anyone else's parents getting divorced. That is not to say it didn't happen, it just wasn't happening to anyone real close to me...But I remember everything about her telling me.
I can remember the day my grandpa K. died. My grandpa had been in the hospital and was very bad. Arrangements had been made for him to come home with a hospital bed and probably Hospice (although I don't recall that, they probably didn't tell me). I stopped in at my Grandma's house and the phone rang. She was getting ready to go over to the hospital and was in the bathroom putting on her bright red lipstick. I answered the phone. They told me Grandpa had died. I remember how I did not handle the situation very well. I walked into the doorway of the bathroom and told my Grandma he had died and turned around and walked away. How awful I was. I didn't know how to handle it. I regret terribly that moment.
I can remember where I was when my mother called me on Sept 11, 2001. I had just dropped my 1 yr old daughter off with her to babysit for the day while I went to work. I had a 45 minute drive. I was halfway there. I was surprised to see her calling already. She told me something crazy was happening and she was watching it on TV, had I heard it on the radio? No. It was hard for me to follow what she was telling me. I didn't get it...until I got to work and turned on my computer.
I can remember when the call came that my cousin, Lee Ann, had been killed in a car accident the night before. Hit head-on by a drunk driver in the rain. She died instantly. She was married and left behind two small sons. I was standing in my daughter's bedroom. No one was home. I sat down on her bed and cried, then called my cousin I call Danielle. It was devastating. I wasn't super close to Lee Ann, but I had great memories with her at the fair each summer. She left behind a husband and two boys that adored her. My heart broke for them.
I can remember just a few years ago being away at a murder trial for a couple days and being handed a note during court. It told me to call my dad. Then I got another note to call home. I knew it was serious. My friend's dad had died suddenly of a massive heart attack. He was barely 51 (I think). It was devastating. I remember sitting in our bailiff's car in the Pizza Hut parking lot during lunch crying on the phone with my friend. I remember how we were both just sobbing hysterically. I remember making the decision to stay and work the trial one more day instead of going home to be with her. Almost immediately, I regretted that decision.
Isn't it funny how our minds will go back to a particular event and recall the exact circumstances of that moment. I could go on and on describing moments like these. I'm sure you can too. It's amazing how our mind stores those images and feelings forever. I suppose they are moments we're not supposed to forget. For me, some of them come with life lessons. I know that in the future given the same situation of being told someone has died and telling their most beloved the heartbreaking news, I will not just walk away. I know that in the future I will drop what I'm doing if I can and go be at my friend's side during a heartbreaking ordeal. We live and learn...
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