Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most Highwill rest in the shadow of the Almighty.[a]2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,my God, in whom I trust.” Psalm 91: 1-2
Saturday was a great day for my wife and me because my son came home to help replace the driver's side mirror of my wife's car-the final step after i sanded and painted the part to the same color of the rest of her car. I enjoyed having some quality father/son time watching him get really good at repairing cars. My wife is also relieved she no longer has to drive an amputated car she affectionately named 'Stubby'. My son and I still have the bumper to put on, but we will wait for the following Sunday to complete that task. I imagine he and I will study bumper replacement videos on Youtube like the coaching staff reviews film of the upcoming opponent.
When lunch was ready, my son, wife and I enjoyed conversation while enjoying homemade soft shell tacos.
Once lunch was done, I walked through the garage admiring the work of Linda's car while pulling the recycling container to our van. This has become part of my Saturday routine.
I drove my van into the City recycling center which is literally just blocks from our home.
After emptying the container, I ran into an old neighbor that once occupied the home down the street from us they occupied with their two young children. As we talked about our jobs and what each of our kids was doing, Gary mentioned how they think of 'Maria' every day. My warm memory was walking Maria across the street to play with his little girl. As her dad, I often did that whenever she wanted to walk over to play with a neighbor child.
When she died, I felt as though I had been robbed of that experience. While Gary and his wife continue to enjoy their children my memories of Maria stop at age 10. As I was talking with him, I found myself comforting him while he remanence the memories of 'Maria'.
He described the stories of other families he knew who tragically lost a child. He remembers someone who witnessed his son collapsing on the soccer field when this person, who taught at the school, ran into the building to retrieve the defibrillator and literally bought his son back to life. Little did he realize, the kid he was referring to was the son of the man who ran into that building, a friend who worked in the same school my wife worked at so many years.
A tear came to my eye thinking and wondering why I couldn't have had that story instead of the one where 'they did everything they could, but couldn't bring her back to life.'
Heavy sigh.......
I did share with Gary the blog and website I started to help other bereaved parents navigate the difficult journey of losing a child. He mentally noted the site for future reference later.
At the end of our conversation, we shook hands and went our separate ways to continue completing the routine tasks of Saturday.
As I reflected on this journey, I also reflected on my relationship with Jesus Christ, the one firm foundation that refuses to let me fail, even in the face of tragedy.
For anyone who knows of a grieving family, here is the website that God inspired me to put together:
Throughout my grief journey I experienced incredible 'God' moments where He meets me where I'm at. Only God knew that when I was at this center, He would bring a former neighbor who remembered when I as Maria's dad use to walk her across the street to play with his kids. Stories were shared today that bought wet eyes as we spoke. I was happy to know that just as our family kept on our faith journey of attending church, his family did the same. When calamities come, our Redeemer is right there for us.
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