Rollercoasters...: July 2017

Another year older, another year is gone, and another year of missing you. Celebrating your birthday without you here is simply not the same! Being that it’s your birthday today, I love to reflect about ALL the things you did that brought me joy during your short yet sweet life.

First and foremost, you were a beautiful human being. I loved your deep blue eyes with those dark eyelashes. Your skin…you had the most beautiful skin and would get the darkest tan! Hence, your nickname was the “tan man.” I remember someone asking your name once and you told him or her, “It’s the tan man!”

There was this one time when we had a huge ice storm in North Carolina. Dad thought it would be a good idea to borrow the Jarvis’ chain saw to cut down all the dead branches. He then thought it might be a good idea to cut down some trees. You always thought the sun rose and set with your Dad, so you had to be right out there when he was doing his “man thing.” He made you stand back by another tree, maybe 15-20 feet away, while he cut down this tree. Well, that tree hit another dead tree that managed to fall right where you were standing and whack you on the head. It was like watching a big tree taking a seedling out! Dad grabbed you and brought you in with a deep head laceration. We hurried to the urgent care center where they had to do 2 layers of stitches, administer antibiotics because of the deep wound, and watch you for a mild concussion. I told Dad he needs to stick to fixing hearts and that we hire people to cut down our dead trees!

This was such a traumatic event for Zach. So much so, that he wrote a story about it for a school project. And, his teacher had it bound into a book. It truly is a keepsake that brings a smile and a little bit of a wince at the memory. I hope you enjoy sharing this memory with me.