Viewing Day (part 2)

Today is Friday and usually Friday's are bad days, and especially when it is raining--but today God brought a little sun shine into my life. Gloria called and wanted to know if I wanted to come over for tea with her and Stan. It did not take me long to say yes. I enjoyed it so much, I almost stayed until dinner, in fact Gloria sent dinner home with me----now how great is that. It is so great how God will provide encouragement just when He knows I need it----He does not always wait until I am hanging on by a thread, but sometimes He just gives me a gift of encouragement because He is God and God is love. Thanks Gloria, dinner was a hit.

Back to the viewing day. We got back to the fellowship hall about 5:45 and there was already a long line. Gillman rushes us into the back door and tells us we better start seeing people right away. As we were walking back up to our stools, I see Ron and Carol. I was so happy to see them, I run over and give them a big hug. We go back up to our spots and people start through again. Again, I can't remember much, it all sorta became a blur except I do remember some moments. I remember when Taylor's friends came through. It tore at my heart to see these big guys with tears running down their cheeks. They never said much to me, just hugged me and cried. I remembered the kid that Taylor had the accident with, he said he was so sorry, and he looked so sad, with tears running down his cheeks. We kept trying to tell him, it is not your fault, it was an accident. This boy had called the house the day before and asked if it would be ok, if he came to Taylor's viewing. We told him, we did not blame him at all and it would be fine. A few days later, later we get a note from this boy's mom thanking us for being so nice to her son and she said, he turned 21 on the day of Taylor's funeral. She said he became a man real quick. I remember looking out the window and seeing the line clear down to the field. Someone that went through the line said they waited between 2 1/2 and 3 hours. That was unbelievable---I don't think I waited that long in line for anything. That was very humbling, to think that people would wait that long to meet us. I guess when Gillman seen that long line he thought he was never going to get to bed that night---poor Diane, she is still on the end of the line, now Gillman is pointing at this watch again, but instead of saying the old people were not going to make it in the hot sun, he now is saying the people were getting eaten up by mosquitoes---so if Diane was not talking much and acting like she was in a hurry to move people a long, it was Gillman, not Diane. Mom must have thought I was looking rather haggard, and tired because she comes up behind me and says maybe you should sit down awhile. i have never hugged so many people in all my life and cried so many tears on people's shoulders. I am sure I left my mark on some of their shoulder's (tear stains). Gillman told us he thought between 1500 and 1600 people went through the line. I was totally shocked how many lives Taylor touched, I hope he left a mark in each of their hearts. I hope they seen God in his life. Something I will always remember is when Spencer's soccer team went through the line, it was very good for Spencer to see all his friends and to give them a hug---but what will always stick out in my mind is when they were all through the line, I turned around and they were sorta behind us and they were in a circle with the coach praying with all of them.Now that is what we need for our kids--coaches that care about their kids and praying with them. God had to be smiling down on that. Spencer went over and joined in with them. I seen Taylor's girlfriend, well they use to be a "couple", but the last several months they had decided to be just friends---well that was more her decision than Taylor's. Anyway, they still talked alot and always were texing each other and would be together in groups. She was coming through with her parents, which Taylor always told me that they(her parents) loved him as a son, but he sure wished "D" would love him too. I was watching them, when "D" got up to Taylor, she leaned over and kissed him between lots of tears. By the time her dad got to me, he was crying and he told me--Taylor was the son, I never had---I could not help but hug this strange man, I never seen before in my life, but my heart was breaking, but so was his---we were connected by this terrible tragedy. I think it was almost 11 until the last person went through the line---I was exhausted but didn't really want to leave, because I knew my time with Taylor was growing short, just one more day, or actually it was measured in hours now. Brooke's boyfriend's mom and her son came from Michigan and she did not get to the fellowshiphall until 11, but by this time, Gillman had enough of people and wanted to go home---he said, we need to go. I thought, we could have alittle time with Taylor, because the next day is our finale good-bye, but as we were getting ready to all go up to the casket---we were just looking at the flowers at first. When we turned around, Gillman was wheeling Taylor out the back door of the fellowship hall---so no closure that night, no time to say good-bye. I wanted to spend some time with Taylor, but didn't get the chance, so on the way home, I was aggravated with Gillman (probably the stress of the evening did not help), but I kept saying we will not take our business back to Gillman's. When we got home and walked into the house, Spencer said in a little quiet voice--I just hope that we don't have any business to give to Gillman anytime soon---we did all have to smile at that comment. Jeff got the mail in and we got probably another 50 cards. It was 11:20 by now, so Jeff did not look at the cards that night. I was so drained, I just hobbled up to bed and knelt beside my bed and thanked God once again for his Grace of getting me through a terrible terrible day and please Carry me through the next day. Ron, Carol and Mandy stayed at Diane's place. Diane gave Ron and Carol their bedroom. She was going to put a night light in the hall so if anyone had to get up during the night they could find the bathroom, but through all the stress and mourning she forgot to put the night light in. About 3:00a.m., Diane wakes up to a big thud and a scream from Carol. Diane knew instantly that Carol had fallen down the stairs. Diane's heart was pounding so hard and she told Max get up and see how Carol was, but it took Max too long, so Diane ran out into the hall way to look. She said she was scared to death that Carol had fallen all the way down the stairs and had broken her neck at the bottom. Yes, Carol fell head first all the way down Diane's stairs. What happened is Carol went to the bathroom, and was coming back to their bedroom in the dark. She thought the bedroom was the first opening, but it was the second and she stepped out into thin air and her face and hands hit the stairs. Mandy said she never came out of her room, until she heard her mom's voice and knew she was ok. Carol was hurt, but not terribly. She had rug burns all over her face and ended up having a hair line fracture in each wrist. She could not make the funeral the next day. When I was talking to Ron several weeks later, he said Carol was doing much better, but he did say that while he was up here in Ohio, one of the ministers in Florida was attending a funeral for a lady that did the exact same thing, except she broke her neck. There it is again, when God is calling you home, you are going to go---we can not add one day to our lives. Carol still has work to do here on Earth, so God protected her from serious injury, but Taylor's work was done. God has a plan for each of our lives, if only we could life as if each day could be our last----how different would I live that day----I try to send some time thinking on this---it sure changes my priorities.