Three years ago today

After Nick passed, his friends and their families came forward to talk about how he influenced their lives. Their stories can be summed up in one of my own.  It was Nick’s 12th grade year, football season had ended, and we were preparing for the banquet.  The parent group had difficulties getting the traditional video of the season completed.  To comfort all of our angst, I said I would make the video. I secretly thought, "how hard could this possibly be?"  I quickly found that the answer to that question is: HARD!  I worked for hours into days and weeks; I spliced and put together film of various football plays until I could no longer see straight. With the banquet approaching my flip offer to make the video was turning into a nightmare. One Saturday sitting at the computer, I was in a full blown panic. Despite my best efforts and hours of work, I had only completed 3 minutes of video. I was ready to quit and admit that videography is clearly beyond my skill set and pay grade. Telling Nick was the first step and then I had to break the news to the other parents. I dreaded both. I called Nick over to the computer to tell him the news. He said, “Mom, show me what you have.”  I did not believe it was even worth playing the few minutes I had spliced together but he insisted.  Rolling my eyes, I showed him all three minutes. He said, “Mom, you are already doing it. Stay with it. You are already doing it.”  I was speechless. Nick was obviously not going to let me off the hook. So, I kept going. Somehow, and believe me I have no idea how, I finished a full length video and it was appreciated by students and parents alike. I think about that day and how my son taught me a lesson in resilience. A few days before he died I was irritated with some small annoyance. Nick turned to me and said, “It’s just life mom, things happen in life.” 

My hope is that all of us will achieve everything we wish. I, for one, will not tempt fate by volunteering to make another video. With that said, my hope is that someone will be near us when we are frustrated and offer comfort with, “show me what you have.” I pray we will be given reassurance and told, “you are already doing it;” and that we will be reminded, “Its just life, things happen in life.” My greatest wish is that we all enjoy gifts of peace and that we, in turn, will offer them to someone else.