Last night we attended a beautiful memorial service for a man from Tremont. He was about our age, with kids near the age of our kids. He has coached both TJ and Abby in travel basketball, his wife has been a classroom teacher for both Drew and TJ. And just 3 months ago, he was diagnosed with brain cancer.
As much as I knew that being there was what we needed to do ... to go and provide our support ... it was more complicated than that for me, and really hard. To know just a year ago we started walking a similar path, and we don't know what the future holds. I wasn't sure I could go, and then once we were there I had two moments where my heart was racing and I almost left to go wait in the lobby for Mitch, thinking I could not possibly do this. We were in the room with a big crowd and the family for about 90 minutes as we waited our turn to share a hug and our condolences, and in that time we saw the slideshow of memories roll across the big screens probably 5 or 6 times. Smiles, birthday cakes, wedding ceremonies, birth of children, kids sporting events, family vacations, high school proms and graduations. Pure and simple, love and family.
One of our kids was in some of the sport team photos, and I hardly recognized TJ as the little round-faced, 3rd grade boy smiling from ear to ear, with all the boys holding up a "#1" with their index fingers and beaming with their basketball tournament trophy. And then a repeat of the team, the trophy and the picture from 4th grade.
Through her obvious grief, his wife told me to be strong, keep working hard. That I was a survivor and my outcome would be different than his. Powerful words from a grieving woman who is walking a path I hope that my family doesn't have to walk anytime soon. Sending all of our love and prayers to the Muehlich family.
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