Well it has been an extremely hectic two weeks with lots of tears, stress and emotions that I cannot even begin to describe. We made it to Little Rock without a hitch. Our oldest son, our daughter and her baby flew down with us and youngest son met us by the airport. So we all drove to my oldest brothers' house from there. We got there just in time to say "hi" to everyone, change clothes and head for the funeral home. They had the casket open for family viewing so I at least got to see my brother one last time. It was just so surreal. I still can't believe he's gone. To give you an idea of the goodness in him, there were over 1000 people that showed up for visitation, many stood in line for over 2 hours in the sweltering heat to pay their respects. Visitation was supposed to be from 5-8 but we didn't get out of there until almost 10:00pm. My OB (oldest brother) rode YB's (younger brother) motorcycle in and had it parked at the end of his casket.
The funeral home was packed for the funeral too. A lot of their motorcycle buddies led the procession from the funeral home to the cemetery and I think there were over a hundred bikes there. It was amazing. I was really upset that morning because it rained and I didn't want the burial to be marred by rain. But it quit raining by the time we got to the cemetery.
We found out that one of the witnesses to the accident is a good friend of my parents and another witness is a friend and co-worker of my cousin's husband. The co-worker is also a first responder and EMT. So YB was in good hands and was alone on the highway. The police caught the truck driver, arrested her and impounded her truck. I don't know yet if they will file charges against her or not, that is up to the prosecuting attorney. She denied even seeing the my brother or the motorcycle but the witnesses said there is no way the she could have NOT seen it. The only thing we can figure out is that she fell asleep at the wheel and crossed the median into YB's lane. He locked up the wheels on his bike when he saw her and swerved into the other lane then laid his bike down. The witness said he absolutely did everything right to avoid a collision. It's just a shame that it cost him his life. I still can't believe he's gone and I saw him in the casket and touched his cold lifeless hand but it's still not real.
Then Friday morning I sent DH and YS off to Dallas since DH had to help his parents load up the truck with household goods to move back to Minnesota. Saturday morning OS, daughter and baby went to the airport where I sent them back to New York and I went to Dallas to catch up with DH. Linda, I'm so sorry that I didn't have time to call you but our plans just got totally changed when I got word of the accident. So we packed up the truck and left early Sunday morning for Minnesota. FIL and I switched off driving the car and DH and his oldest brother, who flew down from MN, switched off driving the truck. We got into his sister's house Monday night, unloaded the truck Tuesday and rested a bit Wednesday. I did get to go to Hancock's in Crystal on Wednesday and bought several yards of fabric.
Then Wednesday night our friend from Council Bluffs drove up to pick us up since we were flying out of Omaha to come home. We left Thursday to go to CB. Friday she and I hit Hancock's there and I got a several more pieces of fabric. Then Saturday we went to the zoo for some fun that didn't require much thinking. We saw Deep Sea in 3D at the Imax. It was great. We flew out of Omaha yesterday at 3:00. At some point DH got a message from our daughter to call her at work so when we got to Chicago I called her to see what was up. Things have not been going well at all for her with her boyfriend and his mother. So we told her that if she ever needed to get out she could always come back home. So she called to say that she needed to take us up on our offer of a place to stay. So this morning DH went over and got her and the baby and they are now living with us again. I'm glad to have her out of that house and situation.
Now comes the hard part though. It has been really difficult putting on a happy face the past week when all I really wanted to do was lay down and cry until there were no more tears. It was so hard to see DH and his brothers together and be reminded that my brother is gone. Even though I have DH, my oldest son and daughter here, my family, as in parents, brother and sister are all within an hour of each other. They have each other as a support system and I feel so totally left out and alone. How pathetic does that sound?!! But what sounds even more pathetic is the fact that I get so angry sometimes that someone as good as my brother was taken so tragically and so young when evil people like my DH's ex and Candy's mother are left here to continue their reign of evilness. Where is the justice? Brother was a helper and the sheer number of people who turned out for visitation and the funeral are a testament to his life and the people he touched. Yet DH's ex is still walking the earth continuing to come between DH and his girls and Candy's mother is still here causing problems so that we don't get to see Logan as much as we should.
Ok I've ranted enough. I do want to thank all of you for the hugs, prayers, good thoughts and all the support you have sent my way. It really meant a lot to me and to just say thanks seems so inadequate but I do want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart. I will continue to hold all that support in my heart in the dark days to come and I know there will be dark days because the depression has already set in. I just have to deal with it now. Thanks for listening everyone and thanks for letting me get this out. I'm off to take a nap while the babies are asleep. I'm exhausted.
Hugs, Mika