Ecclesiastes 4:12

Here's the setting: It's March 20th, 2009.

Its about five minutes before midnight, and I had just gotten home from the normal Friday night thing I did; go to Sydnee's house, eat some food, talk to her parents, watch a movie, leave. I wasn't very tired so I decided to stay up and find something to do. Since I'm so very cool, I read comics. Eventually even that became stale, and at about 2:30 I went out to the living room to watch some TV. My dad was there watching a movie I had never heard of and I decided to join in. Several minutes later, I realized that I had to work at 9:00 the next morning. Sleep became very attractive to me. Setting my alarm for 8:15, I left the realm of the waking.

Flash-forward. I'm awoken by my mom. It's 7:37. Slightly annoyed I begin to complain and ask why my slumber is being interrupted.

"Wake up, something is wrong with Dad. I called 911 already."

With this vague and highly alarming statement, I stood up and put on the clothes at about 8 times faster than the speed of light. Rushing into the living room, I found myself in a living nightmare. About six men in fire fighters' uniforms are walking into my kitchen. I look to the place they are congregating and my eyes land upon my dad sitting on the floor, up against the cabinets. At first I thought he was simply sleeping, but as one of the men begins to yell to him and use smelling salts, and nothing happens, I come into a horrible realization.

My father is dead.

I instantly began to pray for everyone in the room. The fire fighters, my mom, my sister, my brother, me. Looking back on this, I'm very surprised. I did not think that my faith in God was that strong. I began to pray for strength to stay calm and focused so that mom would be able to be weak. She began to cry and wail and scream, asking what was happening and why it was happening. Understandably, the chief firefighter came to me to get information. He asked me a lot of questions. Questions about my dad's health, his age, my age, and all of our names.

Within 15 minutes, it is decided that going to the Emergency Room was a necessity. We walk outside and my neighbor Andy is there asking what he can do to help. That was very cool. I ended up going to the hospital with the fire chief and my mom. Andy took my brother and sister. We got there and we're taken to a room that contained chairs and several different pamphlets that all concerned dealing with losing a family member. The hospital chaplain came in and began to do his best to comfort us. I don't want to sound mean, but it was not what I wanted to hear. I didn't want this stranger to try and make things all better. I called Paul, 17, Barb, and everybody else that i knew would drop everything they were doing to be there. Paul got there first, thankfully. I saw him and instantly embraced him, beginning to cry.

Flash-forward. Its around 9. We're at Andy's house.

I feels like I'm at a party. There's chips and drinks, my friends are there, we're telling stories and laughing. I think I saw just about everyone I've ever met that day, and I wouldn't have
had it any other way. I was shown the love of Jesus in a very real way. My friends made the entire ordeal much easier to deal with, and I want to thank you for being so amazing.

I love you all.

Later,

Fox out.

Currently listening to: Tool