A Loss for Words - May 7, 2020
It started pretty normally. I'd had issues with insomnia the night before (routine for me) and woke up late- 10 am. Thanks to COVID ending my High School freshman year in person, I had an online World History final to take. I got through that easy, shut my computer, and went to eat breakfast. I don't know what else I did after that until I went back to my room for a nap at 2 pm.
My door opening woke me up at 3, 3:30 pm to see my mom and newly 12-year-old brother looking concerned. All my mom said was; "There's been a plane crash. I'm going to the airport. Are you coming?" I grabbed the shoes nearest the door, my pink Converse (they never got tied), and got in the car. The airport my dad flew from and kept his plane at is at Spinx in Burleson, Texas. We lived just behind the airport (five minutes from it). I'd grabbed my phone and was calling people: my uncle, my friends- 4 to be exact (I think). Mom had Find my iPhone pulled up showing dad's phone in a tree-covered area not a mile from the landing/ take-off strip. He barely made it over the fence enclosing the airport.
Already a fire truck was there and we were stopped by a policeman. "How do you know that's your husband?" "Are you sure he's flying today?" "If you go over there you'll be in violation of a federal crime." "If you go over there it'll scar your kids." All those things can be put on a list of "Unhelpful Things To Say To Someone That Thinks Their Spouse Is Dead in THAT Airplane Crash". I daresay that title needs some workshopping.
The last of the day went by in a blur. People showed up at our house, lots of whom I forgot their names at the time, even if I'd known them my whole life. Medical Examiners called and said yet moronic things (if I ever meet that ME I swear I'm going to need physical restraining). My mom sat in her room surrounded by her siblings, I sat in my room with my friends and older cousins, and my brother ran around playing nerf guns with the younger cousins.
It's weird the things that I remember from that day. You wouldn't expect to remember that kind of stuff, like the color of Converse, or which final you had. You would think you'd remember who you called or remember people's names, or maybe what you did that day. Instead, you remember the weirdest, most obscure details and that's the stuff I think you'll remember forever.
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