Good-Bye

Yesterday morning, we said good-bye to my Aunt Jan. She was married to my dad's brother, Frank. Last Thursday morning she was riding in the back seat of a car driven by Frank, and her brother was riding in the front seat. They met a car on a 2 lane highway that swerved into their lane and hit them head on. She and the other driver were killed.

My Uncle Frank spent 4 days in the hospital and was released just in time to come to the funeral home. He is pretty sore and stiff, with bruises, cuts and stitches on his lip and his hand. I just hurt for him when I saw him. I could see through his physical pain and see how much his heart was hurting. He had such sadness in his eyes.

Jan's sister gave my Dad a sealed envelope that contained pictures of the cars. They told him that if he wanted to show it to Frank he could, it was up to him. Dad decided that he would give it plenty of time before he brought it up, but Dad did look at the pictures Monday when him and Mom were in their hotel room. I asked him about it at the funeral and his lip quivered a little and I could tell his eyes welled up a bit, and he just shook his head. The only word he could utter came out as a whisper...."lucky." I had already overheard someone say that it was the air bag that saved Frank's life and her brother's life and I mentioned that to Dad. He nodded and told me that those 2 men were lucky to be alive--he had no idea how anyone survived that crash.

Frank and Jan have 1 son, and he has been a strong, strong pillar through all of this. Him and his wife, Karen, planned everything and picked everything out and then would drive to the hospital to go over it with his Dad. They spent those days driving back and forth making all sorts of decisions.

Jan would've been so proud of her son and how he has come through this. Frank walked by me at the church today and whispered in an almost inaudible voice "It's a bad day." All I could do was nod. It has been several bad days. I just can't get his sad eyes out of my head.