My Birthday

This year my birthday started out great.  My husband wished me happy birthday without having to remind me and he made me a smoothie for breakfast!  10 points for my husband!  Then I checked Facebook and 30 people had already wished me happy birthday.  How exciting is that!  I think that must be the best thing about Facebook... birthdays.  Then I went to my morning Mom Fit step class.  Good times and my friend invited me to come to lunch with her.  So I went out to lunch.  Then I needed to pick up some stuff from Walmart and so did she so we drove across the street there.  As I stopped at the stop light, a car tried turning a little too quickly and started spinning in the intersection.   It was more slick than they had anticipated.  They spun three times and came very close to me, but did not hit me.  Thank goodness.  I got out of my car and was a little shaken.  My friend parked right next to me and we went in.  I picked up a couple things I needed like kitty litter.  I was just about to part from her to get the rest of what I needed, when my phone rang.  I answered and had to ask Matthew to repeat himself as I began to shake because what he told me did not make sense and could not be true.  He told me his dad was in a car accident and died.  My friend grabbed on to me or I probably would have fallen over.  She directed me to a bench and I sat down to think.  There was only one thing I could think of and that was that I needed to get to Mom(Matthew's Mom).  After I could think, I asked her to take Tegan and she offered to come to my house after school to meet my boys.  Then I drove to Mom's house.
Since then has been another whirlwind week.  A week full of emotions and shock that has shaken the entire family.  A week of doing hard things and a week of making memories and remembering a loved father.  So now we go ahead facing the challenges before us.  It is different than losing a child, but in some ways going through this before, losing a loved one suddenly, has helped me know what to expect and help give Mom a head's up.
Matthew's Dad was also his boss.  He owned the company that Matthew and two of his brothers and a sister work for.  Now the stress of owning a business rests on his mother.  I only hope that all the siblings can work together to help.  It's not going to be easy, but Dad started something great and I know that with faith and prayer and a lot of work, they can continue on his legacy.
The amazing thing about this family is how everyone reacted.  Everyone came running to mom, whether by plane or car, they all came as fast as they could.  Even two of my brothers came from far distances to be here for me.  It was so great to be together.  I think we did make a unanimous decision that we need to all quit meeting this way.  Next time we need to have a wedding or something.