A Friend of Aaron's

Sunday morning Cathy called me. I was on my way home from Antigo. She was trying to tell me something, but the words weren't flowing. I've heard Cathy try to break bad news to me before. She tries her best to get right to the point, but a lump in her throat and pain in her heart causes her voice to break.

"...there was an accident." I've heard those words too many times. My mind didn't race--it shot. As a bullet to a target and my mind cringed. Don't be Patrick was my quick thought. Cathy continued to relay the news. A friend of Aaron's, Justin Minnick, had called to say a friend of their's had died in a car crash early in the morning. His name is Kyle Goldensoph. Aaron and Kyle were classmates and friends.

Coming into town, we drove through DeForest and past the accident scene. My heart ached for the family and memories too fresh came back too fast. A broken machine. A broken tree this time. A broken young man. So many broken hearts.

Cathy and I went to the parent's home. We don't know how they feel. We're not sure how we felt at the same moment 9 months ago; shock blocks out some of those wretched feelings. (Shock is a blessing God grants and I didn't appreciate shock fully until months after it passed. I miss its blanket comfort.) We know how we feel today. We pray for this family.

We pray for Kyle's friends. Many are the same friends who mourn Aaron. Many are also friends of one or more of the three DeForest High School Juniors who died in August. Five teenage funerals in nine months. The thought I pray these young people reflect on is: Now that THIS happened, what am I going to do about me? In the bible it says, something such as: Set before you is fire and water, good and evil. Reach out your hand. You have free will to choose one or the other.

We have choices. How are we going to react to what happens? What are we going to do about us? Good or evil? Fire or water? Reach out your hand.

In Memory of Aaron, Matt, Kyle, Kass, and Kyle.

Tom