the days are long, but the years are short...

{back: kim, edgar butler, and emily smith}

{front: e.b. smith}

one year ago today, my family faced one of the hardest days of our lives.

and it seems like it could have been this morning.

i was still in the bed when daddy called. i always get a little nervous when daddy calls early in the morning because it doesn't happen often. and this call was exactly why i don't like the early morning calls.

he told me that edgar butler and his family had been in a wreck and it killed all of them. i didn't think i heard him right, so i asked him to repeat himself - thinking i was still asleep and really just wasn't paying attention.

but i had heard him right, much to my heart's dismay.....

the day was filled with calls to different people, texts from concerned friends/family, and prayers. prayers for my aunt, uncle, and their daughter (as well as her husband/son) who had lost 4 of the most precious people in their lives...

we went home that weekend. for one of the hardest funerals ever. i think mentally i had tried to prepare myself for seeing 4 caskets, but what slapped me was seeing the 4 hearses.

after the funeral, only family and close friends went to the burial. but before we left the school (the funeral was held in the gym at indianola academy), there was one more emotional event.

edgar butler was a pilot. and i had heard that some of his friends were doing a fly-over, but i didn't know what it was. what they did was called the missing man formation. it hit me so hard - just to see this as an honor to my late cousin.

and then i looked over and saw my daddy crying. it crushed me. it was only the 2nd time i can ever remember him crying - the other being when my grandaddy died.

it's so hard to believe that it has been a year. i normally use the quote "the days are long, but the years are short" when referring to mary peyton growing up, but in this case it applies as well. this year was both long and short.

please don't take your loved ones for granted. i know that it's such a cliche' to say that and it's said so often, but it is oh so true. don't be ashamed to tell people you love them. write the notes you've been meaning to write. and make the most of each day. you are not guaranteed that you will have tomorrow......