It's been a long, long Long Weekend

Thursday afternoon, as our family was preparing for our July long weekend, we received some terrible, terrible news.  Some of our closest friends’ daughter was killed in an accident on the highway; she was 17 years old.

She was driving up to her parents’ cabin at the lake to visit her mom and was killed instantly in a head-on collision.  Her boyfriend, travelling with her, also passed away.

Haven’t made much sense of things yet.  Because of the type of accident the autopsies had to be done in Winnipeg, about 2.5 hours from here.  As a result, the families won’t have their children back until late today or possibly tomorrow.

As a double whammy, we found out early Saturday that the driver of the other vehicle is another person close to us, an adopted aunt, of sorts, that has been in my wife’s family for years and years. We’ve eaten together every Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving for the last 17 years (when I started dating my wife).  She’s now in the trauma unit with broken…everything…on life support and requiring many surgeries before she makes it out.  It is nothing short of miraculous that she’s come through this and she has such a long road ahead of her.

My birthday was on July 1, Canada Day.  My wife and kids and I took in the fireworks and had some good family time together, which helped to take our minds off the senselessness of it all.

Funerals are planned for Friday and Saturday for the kids.  We’ll be back and forth to Winnipeg to visit our friend as soon as they allow visitors.  It’s going to be a long week.