The Beginning

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.”

-Heraclitus

Everyone has a story and every family goes through tough times, but it's how we deal with what life throws at us. These posts are just a way for me to get out what has been on my mind for almost two years now. It's a way for me to reflect and share my thoughts and feelings that I might not have expressed otherwise.

This entire journey began on January 1, 2011. Little did I know how much life was about to change for myself and my entire family. I believe most people have their own little rituals and in my family we always have a spoonful of black-eyed peas on New Year's Day for good luck in the new year. Now, I hate black-eyed peas and this year I was going to skip on the spoonful. I had already been out to dinner, was headed to bed, but at last second I decided I better eat some. My thought was "better safe than sorry." I know it's a stupid superstition and there's a plan for everything, but I'm glad I sucked it up and had a spoonful. 24 hours later my dad and I received a phone call from a hospital in Florida. My mom was calling and telling us there had been a bad car accident. She wanted us to try and find out where my grandmother had been taken. I'm not sure how much of that night she remembers, but the thought of losing a large part of my family is still sensitive. My grandparents, mom and 13 year old sister were headed to see the baby horses around sunset. They were trying to cross a dangerous intersection when a truck t-boned them. Both grandparents were care-flighted and my mom and sister were taken by ambulance. The driver of the other truck actually saved their lives with some quick thinking. He managed to turn his truck just enough that it struck between the two doors instead of directly on. Little did we all know how much damage that accident would really do in the long run.