Who knew one life could mean so much?

Who knew one life could mean so much?

Sometimes life stops abruptly.

Even when you’re expecting it.

Even when you’re praying for it.

When it finally stops somehow you’re not ready

no matter how prepared you are.

It is something to walk with people who have lost loved ones.

It is quite another thing to lose a loved one yourself.

To pull into a driveway with fewer cars.

To walk into a doorway with one less hug.

To stand in a kitchen with a smaller circle for prayer.

To pull your chair up to a table with Mom’s empty chair.

To sit on the patio with someone curiously missing over by the flowers.

To go to bed without gathering in Mom and Dad’s room.

To wake up and be the first to get a cup a coffee out of the Keurig.

To see certain things out of place that once had a caretaker.

To see family pictures on the wall almost as if for the first time.

To occupy your wife’s best friend’s house

And for her to not be there anymore.

To hear the weeping of my children as we watched the funeral video.

To see my wife’s eyes fill with tears as she joined her siblings

in sorting things out and throwing things out.

To see the ache in my father-in-law’s face as he went to bed alone.

To wonder if things will ever be the same.