Part 1...The beginning.

I am an ordinary person.  I live an ordinary life.  I’m married, have 3 wonderful children, my oldest is married to a marvelous girl.  I work, raised the kids in the suburbs, sent them to college and have really done nothing but live a normal life.  One of the most exciting things that I have done was go to the Bahamas for my 50^th birthday.  You see I was born in January in Chicago.  One of the coldest months of the year around here.  From the time I was a little girl, once my birthday rolled around, we experienced snow, more snow, giant blizzard, ice storm and oh, did I mention, snow!  Numerous birthdays were put on hold due to the weather.  So for my 50^th birthday, I wanted to be able to experience it in the warmth of the sun, on a beach, sipping piña coladas.  No parties, no hoopla just warmth.  Ahhh, the tropics.  So my husband took me there.  God, it was beautiful!  It was everything that I had imagined.  I just did not want it to end and go back to cold Chicago.  We had it all, the sun, the beach, the piña coladas and the romance.  1 week of delightful bliss.  Anyone who has had the chance to go to some place as lovely as this and experience such a wonderful time should understand what I mean.  If not, close your eyes and just picture it.  However, time goes by quickly and then it’s back to reality!  Back to the ordinary life.

Or so I thought.  2 weeks had gone by and it was now Valentine’s Day.  My husband has never been a romantic. But we were still high off our tropical getaway.  He sent to me at my office, a beautiful vase of red and white tulips.  Was it romance or was he trying to butter me up to get me to go with him to the dealership to pick up his car that was just worked on.  Perhaps both!  I couldn’t burst his little bubble, because he had just got the new tires he had always wanted on his car.  So directly after work, we picked up his car and then stopped for a romantic dinner at the fast food restaurant we passed on the way home!  

Aha, perhaps you thought that there would be more to that Valentine’s Day.  But no… As I said before, we are pretty ordinary.  The next day is a work day for us and you see, my husband is a police officer, for 19 years at this time on this current police department.   So our schedules are just a bit different than most.  I usually go to bed and he goes to work.  We are used to it, as anyone who is married to a police officer would be.  For us it is our life and you make the necessary adjustments.  But this night it was his day off.  However, we just went directly home to finish celebrating with our daughter who was anxiously awaiting the delicious meal from that fine aforementioned restaurant. 

The next day was Wednesday; just another day at work for me.  But on my desk was that vase of beautiful tulips.  There is nothing better than fresh flowers to remind you of spring in the dead of winter.  The day passed by pretty quickly and it was time to go home.  My husband had to go into work this night, so he was asleep when I got home.  Doing what most people do when they get home from work, I checked the mail!  Oh, a wedding invitation from my husband’s cousin.  (Very fancy, with a website to check out and an RSVP via the internet.) Unfortunately we could not attend as we had already responded to a previous wedding invite. (Aren’t we popular!) But I just had to go to their website, respond and browse through it.  Although I could not do so at that time, I knew I would have plenty of time to do that once my husband went to work and my daughter went to bed.  No work for me the next day, as it was my day off.  So I could have a bit a time to myself a little later that evening. 

Ah, my husband is getting ready to leave for work; my daughter is getting ready for bed, accusing her father of eating her barbeque potato chips.  Just an ordinary evening in our household!  Finally peace and quiet for me.  My husband finally left for work and I just had to get myself to the computer to delve into that wedding invitation.  About a half hour had passed.  I had just sat down, totally enamored with the website, when I heard the back door open.  It was my husband, he poked his head into our computer room, and said “oh late night.”  Gosh, I got caught!  I laughed and told him, “Yeah, I’m hooked on this wedding website.”  He had forgotten his flashlight on the kitchen counter and was in and out of the house in a bat of an eye.   Unbeknownst, to me at this time, was that those were the last words I would hear my husband say to me for many months.

Ten minutes after he stopped at the house, I received a phone call from the station that my husband had been in an accident and that an officer would be coming to the house in a matter of minutes to take me to the hospital.  It was 11:15 pm on February 15, 2006 and my life…my ordinary life, had jolted to a mighty stop.