11 Years Ago Today (part 2)

May 22, 2001.

I don’t remember much about today. I just talked to my sister Robyn and she remember my Granny, and my aunts (my mom’s sisters)  driving down and eating with them.  I have no recollection of that. I do know that my granny was in a bad place – her youngest child had just passed away not long before my mom. Robyn remembers Granny saying “ I can’t go through this again, I just can’t.” But she did – although it was hard. She’s buried two of her children – doesn’t seem quite right does it??

I remember four specific things about today.

First, I called my friend Mrs. Smith early in the morning and explained why I wouldn’t be at school that day. I started rambling off all the things that weren’t done in my class room and she said “I’ll take care of it” and she did. I didn’t do one more thing in my room or with my report cards or anything. She took care of it.  Later, she took care of me, but today, she took care of all my stuff.

Second, they were painting a mural on an outside wall of that small hospital in Marathon. I watched the painter paint. I know it was an underwater scene but I can’t tell you anything else about it.  It seemed like it was taking forever!

My sister Robyn is a nurse and the third thing had to do with her.  She had to give our Mom CPR on the beach.  Someone came up and told her they had called 911 and helped her with chest compressions, but afterwards, nobody else saw or could remember that person. Kind of strange, huh??  I watched her switch between being a daughter and being a nurse. She would come in and check Mom’s chart like a nurse. Then, she’d go out into the hallway and cry. She flip-flopped back and forth the whole day.

The last thing I remember may be the sweetest, but to non-church people, it will seem strange.  My family had gone to a church in Marathon on Sunday and filled out visitor cards. They had marked “just visiting” and yes, we have a home church.  Tuesday night, two ladies from that church came to the hospital. I think only Patti and Robyn and I were there. They said “Is there anything we can do for you?” We have yet to figure out how they knew what happened, how they connected the story they’d heard to the people who had visited on Sunday, or how they matched that to us. . No idea.  It was the nicest thing I’d ever heard of.  They have no idea how much that meant. I hope I can do that for someone else one day!

I don’t remember sleeping.  Isn’t that strange? I can’t remember eating.  I know that I did sometime, but I can’t remember it. I know one time they sent me back to the house to go to sleep and I swam laps in the pool. It was gray outside and I just swam back and forth and back and forth. Maybe it was nighttime – I just can’t remember.

11 Years Ago Today

Eleven years ago today was a post-planning day.  May 21, 2001 we were done with students and we were cleaning up our rooms and finishing up.  Our whole family, except Patti and I,  were all in the Keys on vacation.  We couldn’t go because we weren’t done with school yet.  Funny how things change.  I was at my mom and dad’s house with Patti and Makiah, getting ready for dinner and the phone rang.  We had no idea how that phone call would change our lives.

Mom, Daddy, Robyn and her boys had left for the Keys on Saturday. Momma was SO excited – she was packed early. On Sunday night, they all watched Touched by an Angel and Mom made a comment about how she hoped when it was her time to go, she hoped the angel Andrew came from her. 

 

On Monday, while we were at work, they all went to Bahia Honda.  Bahia Honda is a state park and several years ago, it was named one of the most beautiful beaches in the United States.  Mom had had her first massage a week earlier and when the masseuse told her to think of the perfect place, she thought of Bahia Honda.

 

They all floated through that gap in the bridge and came out on the other side. Mom couldn't catch her breath – Ken carried her out of the water.

 

The phone rings, Patti answers and immediately falls apart. I get on the phone and hear – “You’re mom had an accident.  You need to get here.” 

Daddy has a friend named Dave Norris who has his own plane and his pilots license. We were told he would meet us at our tiny airport in a hour.  We grabbed some stuff and left.

I’d never flown in that small plane – and hope to never again. There was lightning, he had to keep changing direction to avoid the lightening.  But where I was sitting, I could see the little gauge that shows lightening strikes – it wasn’t pleasant.  It seemed forever and it seemed no time at all.  I prayed and prayed – and finally understood Romans 8:26  

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Read it this way:

He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans.

I was doing a  LOT of wordless sighs and aching groans.

We landed in Marathon – the airport is tinier than ours. It was after midnight – there was nobody there but our daddy. He picked up us, took Dave Norris to the house  they had rented and left him and took Patti and I to the hospital, where we saw our Mom lying there, unresponsive. We were told she'd had a heart attack and the doctor had put her on life support.  

I had no idea how that day would end when I woke up that morning.  May 21, 2001– the worst day I’d ever had in my life. 

Just do the RIGHT Thing!!!

Why can’t everyone just do the right thing??   I have no patience for people who sneak and manipulate for their own agenda instead of just doing what is right!!  Maybe I just expect too much. I try very hard to do the right thing all the time. I know that I don’t, but I TRY.   I know it makes me a goody two-shoes, but if I have the chance to do the right thing or the wrong thing, I do the right thing.

When those decisions are big things, that affect other people, I try even harder to do what’s right, regardless of how it affects me!  So why doesn’t everyone else? 

 

I’ve had this situation lately where some people chose unwisely – and it is affecting a LOT of people. They’ve had multiple opportunities to attempt to try and fix it or at least try and make it better. And they won’t! It makes me furious, but more than that, it hurts my feelings.  I trust other people to have the same attitude I do and to do what’s right – but they don’t always.  I know this, but I still get offended and hurt. I keep seeing that commercial where one person sees another do one extra good thing, and then that person does the right thing and another and another. The commercial actually says something about all of us doing the right thing. 

Just do the right thing!!

I ♥ Steven Curtis Chapman

Okay, anyone who knows me knows I am not fond of change – and that’s an understatement, like saying Santa could stand to lose a few pounds.  I park in the same parking space all the time, sit in the same seat at lunch, and don’t like to change. But when it came to Steven Curtis Chapman, I had to give change a try.

I love, Love, LOVE Steven Curtis Chapman. If you don’t know who he is, I’m so sorry!! He is a Christian singer, an incredibly prolific writer and an amazing musician. I think he can play anything! I wrote a blog sometime before how I think being his guitar tuner would be the coolest job in the world! (BTW, my radio station – The Joy FM had a contest where somebody actually got to do that!! I think they got the idea from me!!) According to Wikipedia, he has 5 Grammies, and 56 Dove Awards, which is Christian Music’s version of an Grammy. He has sold more than 10 million albums and has 8 certified Gold or Platinum albums. I’m not the only one who loves him.  I may have to do a whole other blog post about how much I love SCC. Just for a taste – I have 6.5 HOURS of his music on my mp3 player – and that’s not even all my music that’s his – it’s just my favorites. I think I counted 8 CDs on my shelf and that’s just one shelf.

Anyway, there was a horrible tragedy in his family several years ago. I prayed so hard for them because I was so afraid that all that he has stood for all these years would just crumble and fall apart.  But they didn’t!! God gave them the courage and strength to get through – and he and his family are not the least bit ashamed to say that.  I saw him about 15 months after the accident and he’d aged – he never had before. But they made it through. I don’t think for one second it’s been easy  or that they’ve magically arrived, but they survived – and their faith seems to be intact! He can still sing.

Anyway, he has a new album called “re-creation.”  It has several new songs, but a chunk of the songs on the album are “re-created” songs he’s done before. He redid this for this album.  Well of course this freaked me out!! I don’t like things different. Some of the redone songs are some of my favorites and how dare he change them?? I like them fine just the way they are!  

I bought it today and I gotta tell you – it’s fabulous. I feel like an idiot for even questioning. Not that my questions changed anything – they are his songs and he can do with them what he wants to, but they are wonderful. I don’t know if KNOWING that he’s gone through the valley and come out makes them sound different. Maybe it’s knowing his heart is different and he’s singing them from a different place. His child died – and he still sings about how the love of God leaves him speechless. He’s astonished and amazed by the wondrous grace of our God. . . 

I’m speechless. And astonished and amazed.

Dear Channel 8,

Steve Jerve will ALWAYS be my favorite weatherman in the whole wide world, but I must say, I lost a little respect for Channel 8 this past weekend. Your post about a teacher being arrested for DUI was unnecessary, hurtful and I think just flat out mean.  What she did was wrong, but I'm sure she is not the only person arrested for DUI this entire weekend. You singled her out by her profession.  There should be some sort of name for that -- it's not racial profiling, it's not sexism or ageism, but it is still a sort of prejudice!  I tried to just let it go, but the more I thought about it, the more upset I felt. Shame on you!

Now, the chances of someone from Channel 8 reading this are slim and none, but it made me feel better to say it.

A priceless plastic bottle. . .

I got a special bottle tonight. At first glance, it’s just a plain old plastic bottle, but it’s what you can’t see that makes it so special. 

 

Tonight at church, one of my sweet little girl showed me a bottle of water she’d brought from home.  She had it in her Easter basket and she had another half full one.  She said ‘Look at what I brought!” I thought she just brought it to drink later. I could tell it had some  sort of  flavor added to it, so we talked about the color and the taste. She told me it was mango pineapple. I talked about not liking mangoes, but I smelled it and looked at it. 

Later,  she asked me if I minded if she drank it, since I didn’t want it.  I realized( like a big dummy!) that  she brought that bottle FOR ME!  She even asked her mom for a permanent marker to put  an “S” on the top for Sandi. She put an “A” on hers for Alyssa. 

I was blown away! That was the sweetest thing!  I felt terrible that I didn’t realize it earlier and hurt her feelings.  Of course, I apologized profusely and told her how sorry I was and what a big dork I was for not getting it earlier.    I shared half of my bottle with her and we drank it together.  It was really good!  What she didn’t realize was this – since she brought it just for me, I’d have drank it if it was boiled beef bones!  Even if I HATED it, I’d have chugged it down, for her! Luckily, that wasn’t the case!

They say every seven years your tastes change. I have never cared for mangoes, but I realized after I thought about it, that I ate mango lime pie from Publix, and I’ve eaten mango candy lately.  Maybe it’s true your tastes change. Or maybe the sweetness of that darling little girl is what helped make it taste so good!

Thank you Alyssa for being such a sweetie! Thank you for thinking of me!

I wish I were more ADVENTUROUS

I’m not a brave person. I realized this week that I have friends who are MUCH braver than I am. I wonder if I choose them on purpose to help me be more brave! That’s sort of an aside thought and not really the point of this post, but it’s sort of related.

Here’s the point – I watch Food Network A LOT! I love Iron Chef America, the Worst Cooks in America, all that stuff.  I’m fascinated when they use spices and things I’ve never heard of. I  like to cook, sometimes, even though I don’t do it much.  I’ve been showing my students some videos that show how people eat in other parts of the world and in several of them, the people got to the market.  Lots of places,  it seems, still have spice markets where people go and purchase the spices they need.  Here’s a great picture that I got from Wikipedia that seems to show up often in these videos:

I wish I were brave enough to try some things I’ve never heard of. I use garlic and celery salt and I have several bottles of spice blends but I’m still kind of wimpy when it comes to spices. 

Oh wait, it’s not just spices. I’m a creature of habit – most of the time I get the same thing all the time when I go out to eat.  For example, if I go to the Outback, I get Alice Springs Chicken with no mushrooms.  At Carrabbas, I get the Chicken Trio. Even at McDonalds, I always get a Quarter Pounder, ketchup only. I should be brave and just try something different. Why don’t I??