Dark day

Today was really a sad, dark day. It didn't start out that way. In fact, it had the makings of a nice, relaxing day. I started out the day at the nursing home where I take communion. When I got there, nobody was out in the common area. I thought the people working just forgot to tell anyone, but when I found them, it turned out that there aren't that many people left. Within the last 6 weeks, they had 6 people pass on. The brothers who died within days of each other, the husband and the wife, others I knew and saw every month. Instead of a room of 10-12 people, I went room to room, and there were only three people left that I knew. One of them, Sylvester, told me a story about his wife of 74-1/2 years, and how she went home to die, and how she recognized everyone once she was home, even people she hadn't know when they came to the nursing home. He had great stories and I wanted to stay and talk to him all day, but had to move on.

I ran home to pick up the kids and got to church just in time. I was responsible for the petitions this morning which is fine, but one of them was praying for the people who died and were impacted in Colorado. I knew it was coming, but still my voice cracked a little bit. Nolan had heard me talking about it with Dave before, so he knew, but Abby didn't. On the way home we talked about it, and what happened. How do you explain that to a child? How do you not scare them into never going into a movie theater again?

And then I got home, and found out that Joyce, the mom of our neighbor Rocky, was in the hospital. She's had some heart trouble, including open heart surgery in the past, but she gets a stent put in and she's good to go. Unfortunately, not this time. This time, they did surgery and when they were all done, her blood pressure dropped and that was it. It's very strange as she was just here, I was just talking to her on Wednesday, having some random conversation. If anyone was full of spit and vinegar it was her, but she had the biggest heart ever... just like Rocky. The boys called her "Big Grandma" and she was indeed--big heart, big personality, big love of life. A sad day indeed.

Joyce, I'm glad to have known you.