One year later

A year ago today my father called me at work to tell me that my Uncle Linus had died in a car accident. A few days later I was driving to his wake and a song came on the iPod I had playing in the car. It was "Seasons of Love" from the musical RENT. If you're familiar with the song you know that it's all about measuring a year in the life of a person. The song completely broke my heart because I knew that Uncle Linus had been on his way to the VFW later that day for a Veterans' Day celebration and I knew that he had attended the exact same event the year before. When he sat there on November 11, 2007, with all of his friends, he didn't know that he wouldn't be there for the same event the next year. He didn't know that exactly one year later he would die in a tragic car accident. He didn't know that a few weeks after that day when he sat there having coffee and chatting with his friends that it would be his last Thanksgiving, or his last Christmas, or his last birthday. None of us did. When I last saw him a few weeks before he died I never imagined it would be the last time.

Here we are, one year later. We've all made it. We've all been able to celebrate another Thanksgiving and another Christmas and another round of birthdays with those we love. I look back at the past year and everything that I have been blessed with and the times that I've had with my husband and my children and my family and I know that at any time it could all be taken away. Because if we learned nothing else with Uncle Linus's death, I think we all learned that even if you were blessed with 70 of them, it's never enough. A year goes by way too quickly.

He was gone way too soon but we were all the better off for having known him and having him in our lives. In his honor today please go out and hug all of those you love. Let them know how you feel and pretend like every moment could be your last.

I miss you Uncle Linus......