Rough Holidays
I called Justin up on Thanksgiving morning 2006 to wish him, his wife, and their 13-month-old son Henry a happy thanksgiving. Then I asked him when they were going to give Henry a little sister. He laughed and said they were talking about it. I told him time was waisting and they needed to work on it since Henry really needed a little sister and I also needed a granddaughter. He laughed again and said he would see. We said our last goodbyes and hung up. Less than 2 weeks later he was gone forever.
Christmas was rough that year needless to say. The day after Christmas a letter from his widow arrived apologizing for not getting the Christmas cards out. Justin, being an artist always custom-made their holiday cards. Just a couple of months earlier we received a Halloween card he had designed with the 3 of them dressed up and photo-shopped to look like zombies from Shawn of the Dead.
Upon reading her apology we both said WTF? The card was not that important. We then went on to read that the reason for not getting them sent out was that they had designed the cards to announce that they were expecting another child in early August. I was horrified that I had convinced them to have another child and now she was going to be alone raising 2 children. I was crying when my wife said there was little possibility that they got pregnant, found out about it, and then made cards all in the span of 13 days. I then remembered his laughing and realized they already knew and he wasn't going to let the cat out of the bag.
Early in the day on his birthday I wrote the date July 25th out and without thinking grabbed my phone, flipped it open and pulled his number up from the speed dial and called it. After the second ring I reallized what I was doing and hung up, breaking down for a bit.
I repeated this once more before leaving work that day but didn't actually press the CALL button. Later that evening I was standing in the kitchen with my wife when my phone rang. It was Greta's number, his widow. I answered it "hi Greta". The voice on the other end said "sorry, this isn't Greta, i't Peggy, her mother. We have all had a rough day today being it is Justin's birthday. We ended up taking Greta to the ER because of the added stress and they have decided to keep her overnight for observation due to how close she is and monitor the baby". I thanked her for the info and asked her to let us know if there were any issues.
Around 11:30 that evening after I had fallen asleep my phone started vibrating off the nightstand. I picked it up just a little late and ended up listening to the voice message: "Congratulations, Henry has gotten his little sister" on what would have been their father's 26th birthday.
Christmas was rough that year needless to say. The day after Christmas a letter from his widow arrived apologizing for not getting the Christmas cards out. Justin, being an artist always custom-made their holiday cards. Just a couple of months earlier we received a Halloween card he had designed with the 3 of them dressed up and photo-shopped to look like zombies from Shawn of the Dead.
Upon reading her apology we both said WTF? The card was not that important. We then went on to read that the reason for not getting them sent out was that they had designed the cards to announce that they were expecting another child in early August. I was horrified that I had convinced them to have another child and now she was going to be alone raising 2 children. I was crying when my wife said there was little possibility that they got pregnant, found out about it, and then made cards all in the span of 13 days. I then remembered his laughing and realized they already knew and he wasn't going to let the cat out of the bag.
Early in the day on his birthday I wrote the date July 25th out and without thinking grabbed my phone, flipped it open and pulled his number up from the speed dial and called it. After the second ring I reallized what I was doing and hung up, breaking down for a bit.
I repeated this once more before leaving work that day but didn't actually press the CALL button. Later that evening I was standing in the kitchen with my wife when my phone rang. It was Greta's number, his widow. I answered it "hi Greta". The voice on the other end said "sorry, this isn't Greta, i't Peggy, her mother. We have all had a rough day today being it is Justin's birthday. We ended up taking Greta to the ER because of the added stress and they have decided to keep her overnight for observation due to how close she is and monitor the baby". I thanked her for the info and asked her to let us know if there were any issues.
Around 11:30 that evening after I had fallen asleep my phone started vibrating off the nightstand. I picked it up just a little late and ended up listening to the voice message: "Congratulations, Henry has gotten his little sister" on what would have been their father's 26th birthday.
