Oh friends. This week has been another tough one, that has got me thinking of so many things.
The week started out pretty good, as I was getting some painting done at the house. We had Labor Day plans to be at our cottage up north, so we headed there on Friday morning.
Our cottage is a place that holds many memories, and we always love making more there with family. Labor Day is always a time that we celebrate hubby’s birthday, and enjoy the last hurrah of summer before our grandkids are in full swing in school.
We had perfect weather and were enjoying a few fun days on the lake. Then on Saturday, my daughter-in-law noticed her phone was blowing up with messages (usually when we are there, we really try to keep the phones in the house and just enjoy that beautiful lake).
Then she broke the news. Tragedy had struck some of our friends from church. They have 6 beautiful children, one being a bestie of my granddaughter (let’s call her “K” here). Two of them had been out riding bikes down a country road, and were struck by a car.
Her 12-year old brother was killed on the scene, and K was rushed to the hospital with grave injuries and it was released that things were not looking good. We all just broke. Here is the news link.
This beautiful family that my son and his family are friends with, had just sung together in church a few weeks ago and it was so tender. We were all choked up and enjoying that beautiful feeling that you feel with something like that.
K has the voice of an angel, and she and my granddaughter had spent the weekend singing when we hosted them together at the cottage earlier this summer. They are both 13 years old, and that is such a fun time in ones life.
The grief that these parents must feel is unimaginable and we were all bereft thinking of what had happened, and what could still happen. We all just held each other and cried.
Friends, when I say that we prayed so hard for this family this weekend, I sincerely mean it. I just felt numb most of the time, not even fathoming what emotions were being played out throughout their family.
The grandparents, and a sibling of K’s dad and her family are all in our same congregation, and they all sit together each week (with us usually in the row behind them with our son and his family) and we watch how these sweet children interact with each other. Cousins are always so fun to be with.
I am heartbroken for them, and I just couldn’t check in with you this week and pretend that all was well. Because frankly, this had me thinking hard again about our family. How we interact with each other and make memories, and how our home is that safe haven from the world.
But how do you get through something so tragic?
Needless to say, our whole community (church and town) have been rallying around this family this week. A Go Fund Me has been started for the family, and word is spreading.
And here I am, just wanting to be more of a hermit in the woods, hugging those I love and (frankly) never letting go. Why is it that it sometimes takes a tragedy to stop long enough to realize that we need to frequently pause and just hang on tight to what really matters?
So this week I am a bit pensive, obvi, and am just gonna hunker down and continue praying that K comes out of danger and is on the mend. She really won’t be out of the woods, from what we hear, for another 24-36 hours.
I will have projects that I will work on this coming week and will check in next week with hopefully better news. Just have this be a bit of a reminder to hug all your loved ones and hold them tight. And if any of you are inclined to pray for strangers, I am sure they could use all the power out there. If you feel inclined to help a stranger too, the Go Fund Me link is above.
Thanks for reading this, and we’ll hopefully get back to projects this coming week. xo
