All I can say is "wow, what a tough three days". It all started late Wednesday evening, after a daylong cold rain, my telephone rang about 7pm. A close friend of mine asked, "have you heard the news?". I answered I hadn't a clue what he was talking about. Turns out, our long time fire chief had shot and killed himself. I have never had anyone I knew well commit suicide. A half dozen of us have served together almost 20 years, we weren't prepared for the shock.
On Thursday morning as all of us began to regain our bearings, we realized we needed some involvement in the funeral, and called his son to arrange that. I went out to the cemetery to see if the ground was firm enough to hold up our fire trucks, and on my return trip through town happened upon a car wreck, an elderly couple(the woman use to be one of my teachers in school) had run into the side of a cattle trailer. I helped get the man out of the car and into the ambulance, I think he will eventually be fine.
This morning right off the bat I got another phone call that a friend of mines father had just suffered a heart attack. They wanted to life flight him but the cloud deck was too low, I still haven't heard the outcome of that. Then at noon, I was hit with the news that some neighbors I am fairly close to are getting a divorce, "splitting the sheets" as we call it. Undoubtedly they will have to sell the farm to settle the divorce..who knows what kind of neighbors I will end up with next.
I'm fine, I just wish everyone I know was too.