Thoughts on Life

Well, we received some very sad news last week and I can't seem to stop thinking about it. Last week a buddy of my husbands was killed in a car accident. He had gone to high school with my husband, and had moved away after. Hadn't heard much from them until they recently moved here with his wife and two daughters, about 2 months ago. They seemed like a very cute family. I had only met his wife one time and seen him a couple of times since he's been currently playing on my husbands City League Bball team. They were around our same age, with children around the same age as ours; all very young. To have him taken right out from under her, I can't even imagine the kind of pain she is going through, losing her husband and becoming a single mother of two little girls, to raise all on her own; one of which will probably never remember her dad and the other is only 5 and may have some little memories of what her dad was like. I can''t imagine my kids growing up not knowing their father. It's a hard thing for anyone to go through. To have everything you knew and loved just flipped upside down and everything backwards of how you thought your life would be. Mark was able to travel up for his funeral on Valentine's Day. One blessing is that they were LDS and have a lot of support from family and friends. But still it seems like one of those things you hear about that rarely happens, or only happens to others, to people you don't know, not to someone you grew up with(in Mark's case) and not to someone so similar to us. That kind of thing doesn't happen. right?! Wrong. We seem to get so busy and caught up with our own lives, that it happens and happens more often than we think.

I can't stop thinking about what she would have said to him that day if she knew that was the last time she was gonna see him, or what things would have been different if you knew that you wouldn't have that person by you for very much longer. I get teary eyed still just thinking about their little family. I know that I take a lot of things for granted a lot of the time, that I tend to let little things bother me, like when my husband was late getting home on Valentine's for a date to the movies with me, because he was hanging out with friends for too long, or like when my kids make a huge mess in the living room right after I finish cleaning it. NOW, I think what if they weren't even there to make a mess, if they were taken from me, I'd be wishing that there were messes all over my house to remind me of them. So many "what if's" that just make me tremble at the thought. Life is too short to sweat the small stuff and sometimes even shorter than we know.
I know that our friends have an eternal perspective on things, and that would be the only way to cope with something so life altering. I can only imagine the heartache and the changes their family will be going through. She is moving back home to be closer to her parents, and a lot of changes in their schooling and classes have been made. Thank you to all of our friends that have called and offered support in their behalf and ours. We appreciate all of you, and they do as well. Do us a favor and hug your little ones extra tight tonight and let your spouse know how much you truly love them, because you never know when will be the last time that they get to hear it from you.