It was about this time…(830 pm on December 23rd, 2012)
Do you have that kind of event marked in your brain, the time when something happened that will forever be marked with indelible ink on your memory?
The phone rang while I was with my sister’s family and was opening gifts. My sister-in-law called to say he was gone…she was sobbing; I talked to a state officer who came to deliver the news. I called my older sister, and we headed to my parent’s house. We somehow robotically moved about and headed to Detroit. We sat together, and life began to unfold in a very odd way as we learned about the accident that took my brother’s life that night. My sister-in-law, not yet 40, with a 16, 14, 14 and 9-year-old.
Now, everyone is 11 years older. The kids are adults. The journey is marked with vivid memory and the days have been navigated with courage and chaos, tears and trauma, sadness and sorrow, laughter and love! A deep, strong cord of love has always held us all! This group of cousins is tight. They know laughter and they know love. They have stood together in heartache and brokenness and it is a very sweet story of sorrow to hear them reflect on those days.
Today we felt the love more than the trauma. We saw the hope of life 11 years later. In a world of violence and brokenness, I am aware that every day, someone is at the start of their grief journey. Cling to hope and let the strong cord of love carry you through the hardest of days.
