It's Olympic time!!! I love, love, LOVE the Olympics. I watched the opening ceremonies last week and enjoyed that so much! I have been watching every night for as long as I can last. It's been great to see the American spirit from the American team. One thing that was a shock was the day right before the Olympics started a young 21 year old man from the Georgian team was participating in a luge practice run. He was going about 80-90 miles an hour when he lost control, he was thrown against one of the poles and he was taken to the hospital where he later died from his injuries. That was such a shock before the games. It definitely made people think about life more and how precious it is. Well, just a week later that same theme of how precious life is and the shock of an unexpected death reared up again. As I was preparing to leave for school on Friday morning, my mom told me the phone was for me. I was a little bothered that it was going to make me a little behind in getting ready for school. It was a lady from my mom's church, Ms. Lavenda. She called to tell me the terrible tragic news that a wonderful friend that we knew and loved died from an accident the night before. She didn't want to tell my mom because she knew how upset she would be, and she figured I would figure out the best way to be able to tell her. Now I had to think of how I was going to do that before I left for school. I decided I needed to tell her then so she wouldn't get a phone call about it when I wasn't there. I called my neighbor to tell her and then to ask her to keep an eye and an ear out for my mom throughout the day. Then I shared the awful news about the death of Ms. Ivy. My mom as I expected was very shocked and upset. Before I left for school though, she called another neighbor and was talking to her, so I knew she would be ok. It was easier to leave knowing that she was ok and talking and sharing with someone else. It was a tough ride to school, I heard some songs that brought lots of tears to my eyes. You see, part of the difficulty of this tragic death is that Ms. Ivy's husband and my dad were very good friends. They really enjoyed each other's company. She also was a huge blessing to my mom and I after my dad's death. She and Ms. Lavenda would come over and check on us, bring food and just chat. I also thought of her son Brian, Jr. who relied on her so much, as he's not able to take care of himself fully. Then I thought of her son who lives in another state and is established where he is. Life will be so different for them now. They just lost their dad 3 years ago. My heart was breaking. Then when I got to school, Pete came to see how I was and see if I knew anything. Then Pastor Jason came in my room also. I was just telling Pete the hard thing is that they were so good to my dad. When Pastor came in I broke down, he hugged me and was really teary too. We talked for a little bit about it. That's when I found out the real story, how Ms. Ivy and Brian, Jr. were rear ended when they were almost home. The guy that hit them never stopped and just drove off. Ms. Ivy got out to see the damage done to the car and while she was out there, she was hit by another car. That guy did stay, but it was so bad. She broke pretty much every bone in her body that could be broken and there was severe head trauma. The EMT's lost her while they were treating her out on the road, but they brought her back. She was just on machines at the hospital and eventually she died sometime Friday morning. It was just such a shock. I still don't believe it. As Pastor Jason said in his daily email, he just can't seem to find the words to say. This is such a difficult thing. I don't quite understand how and why this could happen, but as the song reminded me that I was listening to- "He is with you". Even when we don't understand, He's never left us and He is there for us to hold to.
Lord, please be with this family during this awful time in their lives. My heart breaks for them, but help me to remember that your heart breaks for them too. You care for them and their sorrow is real to you. Help me to remember that even though we don't always understand, we can't always trace your hand, we have to trust your heart. Thank you for being with us!
