History

High school history and it is not a good chapter. This week started off sad. I received news that a classmate died. He was too young to die. Death hits us all so hard when we lose loved ones. And yet, it brings people together. It is no different for us. We are a family of friends and our class is pulling together for support. We are grieving together. And as we grieve, we also find ourselves laughing. Laughing at precious recalled memories. Stories that some of us are hearing for the first time. Learning little bits of life facts about our friend. Stories that take others of us back to that specific time. Those memories are wonderful. They help us heal. Memories ensure that our dear friend will always be remembered by his friends and his family.

Our days seem to be getting darker as the week progresses. As we grieve for one friend, we pray for another. She is struggling for her life. She has been hospitalized due to a brain aneurysm. We pray. We send updates. We wait. We wait for good news.

We are supposed to outlive our parents, unlike our children today. Too many parents bury children, adult children. I know how heart-wrenching that can be for a parent. I watched my grandmother closely when my father died. She wasn’t the same woman after his passing. Neither have the parents of other classmates we have said so long too.

Shouldn’t we look at the cause of death if it was a health related issue? Learn from it? Our friend died an unnecessary death. That upsets me. His symptoms could have been treated with diet and exercise. That means change. I know change is hard. I struggle with it. I have been making changes – exercising, making better food choices, eliminating some foods from my diet. It is not easy. I get discouraged. Some days… I just hate it. I don’t exercise every night. I don’t always choose the healthier food. Maybe he didn’t know. That is another issue I struggle to understand. If you have health insurance, honor yourself. Get that annual physical. I don’t like going to the doctors. But I go. I have children to raise. A husband that I plan to dance all night with when we celebrate 50 years of marriage. There is too much at stake in life – my life. I am not ready to leave this world.

So as we all reach out and plan to get together more often, we need to talk about health issues. We are aging, despite denial. We need to make those dreaded changes. We need to be there for each other now – while we are living.

R.I.P. Tim – we love and miss you but you’ll always be in our hearts!

Missy, may our prayers lift your from your situation and may you have a short road of recovery.