Woken with a start by 3 year old crying for milk. Fix milk. Notice throat feels scratchy. Must.Drink.OJ. Try to pick up unopened OJ container. It’s stuck, and there’s OJ everywhere. (Stupid leaky bottle.) Clean fridge. Get everyone dressed, fed and ready. Go to the car. Dead battery. Jump off. Rain. Changing a (stuck) battery in the rain. Late for school. Run by the grocery store to return leaking OJ and buy a mop. Go to car. Realize I forgot to buy a mop bucket. Get baby back out of his seat, in the rain, to go get a blasted bucket. See motorcade for Staff Sergeant Alex French, a local soldier who died in Afganistan. Realize that I’m holding my breath. Tear up. Sob. Gain my composure. Thank God for our troops. Remind myself that dealing with little OJ spill doesn’t even begin to compare to sacrifices made during warfare. Go to local consignment sale. Stand in line for half an hour. Get almost to the checkout. Get call from Carter’s teacher: “Did you bring a lunch for him?” Drats. No. Get out of line. Lose cell phone. Go to house, pick up lunch box and deliver it to the school. Go back to sale. Get back in line. Find cell phone. Notice the date for the first time today: October 7th. Another 7th. One more month. Six already? So fast. So slow. I am always crushed for Mike and Heather on the 7th. I wonder if I will ever forget bright-eyed Madeline. I won’t. Her story, her life…is imprinted on my heart forever.
Two lives, both cut tragically short.
Very different circumstances.
Very different causes.
Just very different.
Yet the same: I never met either of them, but they have both changed my life.
I will not forget.
Thank you, Mike & Heather, for sharing her with us-those who never met her, but had fallen in love with her regardless. Thank you, SSG French, for protecting us and giving the ultimate. Thank you both for reminding me of how fragile life can be. And that little things such as forgotten lunches and sticky messes really aren’t a big deal.
Join me in celebrating the lives of Madeline Alice Spohr and Alex French IV:
Friends of Maddie is a wonderful organization whose mission is “to provide support to the families of critically ill babies in an effort to help ease the transition into NICU life and to be an ally until the end of their child’s hospital stay.”
For those of you in my area, there is a “French Children Benefit Fund” at The Magnolia State Bank or “The French Benefit Fund” at The Exchange Bank.
For those of you not in the area, but wanting to support the familes of fallen soliders, click here to see military-related charities which are approved by the BBB.