I want to break away from politics for this week in remembrance of my brother, Randy, whom I lost one year ago. Maybe there are those of you who have also lost a loved one recently and perhaps something I write will help you in your loss. They always say the first year is the worst and I have found that saying true. We have lost both of our parents, my other brother and I, but nothing has hit me like the loss of Randy. Perhaps it's because we know our parents will eventually pass but a sibling, that really doesn't cross your mind. I guess what really hurts are the memories of playing together, sharing most of your childhood, and supporting one another through those early years. All in all nothing has ever effected me so much as this loss. And I would like to share some things with you that have made me feel better as the year went along.. But I will start with a call from a Dr. last May24th that has changed my life forever.
I came home from church to see a Dr's name on my caller ID. I knew at once it was about Randy. #1 the call had a 303 exchange #2 Randy had not been feeling very well. The summer before I stayed with him as I came for my 40th high school reunion. We did a lot together. Randy always planned like these little dates with me..He knew exactly where we were going and he knew exactly how to get there. I have lived in Chicago since 1979 and a lot of things have changed in Colorado. When we left Colorado there were 1,000,000 people living there, now over 4,000,000 have come to the state. Many from California as they got tired of the earthquakes and high taxes. So some parts of home don't even look like Denver to me. And a lot of the old landmarks are gone. During one of our times together, Randy looked at me and said" I have to tell you something, I said OK, and listened as Randy went over his long list of illnesses he had suffered through including three heart attacks. At the end he said "I think I am going to die. I said nothing because mainly the way he said it. And I said OK, but maybe you aren't. And he said "I know I am going to die." And he started on a list of things he wanted me to do. I wrote some of this down and we talked of a will and we took care of some of these things before I went home. Looking back now I wish maybe I should have stayed a little longer but we all have our own lives to live and I needed to get home.
Almost a year passed and I received the call. My brother was extremely ill with cancer in his chest and lesion's in his brain. I needed to go immediately. Unfortunately I knew I needed to get to Denver, but my husband wanted new tires on the car and he wanted some repairs done also, so I was not able to leave as quickly as I wanted. It took almost a week to get all this done. Finally on Sunday May31st my son and I left for Denver.We drove straight through. We left Chicago about one and arrived in Denver about four the next morning. It was kind of erie feeling when we got there before sunrise. I did not want to wake my friends so Russ and I went to a Denny's and had some breakfast. It took me a while to find the Denny's but I finally got on the right street. You can't believe how much Denver has changed. It always takes me a few days to get readjusted. I waited until about six to go to Jan's, a friend for over forty years, and her lights were on. We were exhausted and Mike and Jan were up early because her son Aron was leaving for Iraq and they were going to the airport to see him off. So they left, and Russ and I literally crashed. I had tried to call Randy on the way but he was not answering his phone so I was pretty nervous. We slept to about noon and then I called the airline to get Russ on a plane, because he needed to get back to work. And this is when my angel kicked in and helped me. I mentioned earlier all the times by faith God has answered so many of our needs through the years. I had about $100.00 planed to find a flight back to Chicago. I know that was not enough but that is all I had. So I told the ticket agent my story and he was very understanding but the lowest price was $304.00. I am thinking oh my G-- how am I going to get Russ back home. The ticket agent starts saying."Oh my gosh, oh my gosh" and I said "what..what's happening?". And he says "I've never, I've never seen this before." and "I said what before" and "he says, they just changed the ticket to $96.00. And he said again I've never seen this before. If you get here before 6:00PM and buy the ticket at that time you can get on for $96.00. This is when I knew I was exactly where God wanted me and that he was going to take care of us. I said "we will be there, believe me." Russ and I went to lunch and did a few things and I took him to the airport. Randy was still not answering so I spent a very unrest full night....continue tomorrow. Marna
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