11/16/2013

     All during our difficult, and at times excruciating, walk through grief there were people who would lovingly and generously (often repeatedly) offer us solace in whatever form they could. There were the friends and family members who regularly called to check on us, the neighbors who continued to call on us and ask what we needed, the strangers who upon learning of our situation, offered God's blessings over us, our co-workers who continually tried to make our work lives easier in whatever way they could. There were also some things that we experienced only because of Curtis's death. For example, some dear friends of ours who happened to be of Native American ancestry offered to hold a sage-burning ceremony for us to cleanse our lives of any lingering negative energy. I can't honestly recall if I felt any different after the ceremony other than to say I did feel the love and concern that surrounded us that night. In a similar vein, I knew that there were countless people of faith praying for us on a continuing basis. Some Jewish friends of ours told us that they had placed a stone on Curtis's grave. One of the other families who had also lost a son in the accident told us that they believed Curtis had accepted the Lord shortly before the accident. One of our neighbors, who we hadn't known very well prior to all of this, assisted us by setting up a fund at a local bank where people could donate to the families to help with expenses. They also set up a website where people could gather information about our legal case and comment on the situation and helped us navigate through our dealings with the media. There were countless other people who came to our rescue, many of whom, I'm sure, I'm unaware of to this day. Whether I can recall the details or not, I do know how incredibly grateful I was then, and still am now, for what people did for us during those dark, dark days. For anyone who has never been in a situation like ours, I don't think they could possibly understand how much those loving acts of kindness meant to us, and how the memory of those acts continues to resonate with us today. It awes me still to realize how very loving and kind people can be toward each other.