My life was changed forever too. TH and I were suppose to be there that night.
To this day, I cannot remember why we decided not to go. Maybe we were tired, maybe we got off work too late and wouldn't have made it in time. In any case, we stayed home that night. In the morning, I remember hearing something about a huge fire on the radio as I drove into work, but it didn't register that it was the concert I had planned on attending. Even as I logged onto the internet to read the newspaper, I still wasn't connecting this huge tragedy to my aforementioned plans. I wasn't until I saw "the Great White concert" that I felt the blood drain from my face and my fingers were dialing TH's cell number. I didn't even say hello, just "Oh My God, did you hear what happened". Then, there was just silence.
While we were in Tennessee this past weekend, we drove by a club that was featuring "Great White" in concert. Yes, they are still touring after all this. I looked at TH as we passed by and he look back and said, "I don't think I could ever go to one of their concerts again". I didn't have anything to say in return. I had no words.
I wouldn't call this a "near death experience", because it wasn't. But, it is something that just hangs with me. It seeps up when I hear about people dying in fires or being horribly burned. It scares me that I could have been that person. I hope whatever kept us from going to that concert stays around us for years to come and it makes me mad that it didn't help those who died that night.
Is wrong that an experience like this has opened my eyes to just how lucky I am and that I really have a great life? I'm healthy (or soon will be after all that weekend lard exits my system), I have a beautiful home and a husband I love more and more every day. I have great friends like Josh (aka Chester) who have been with me since childhood. I have a family that makes me crazy, but I love them still. And I have a great (chocking sound
Every day, no matter how busy I am, I try to take one moment and just live. Life is unbelievably precious.
WOW. What amazing luck (??) that you weren't there that night. I can totally understand where you're coming from, I lost three friends at 15, in a horrific car crash. A car that I WOULD have been in if my mother hadn't come to pick me up. The drunk driver walked away without a scratch, he found me on facebook the other day....I still can't talk to him. That could have been me.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you're still around, and you have every right to be thankful for that. And no...it's not wrong that this experience showed you all those things. Things happen for a reason. Terribly cliche I know, but it's true. What's nice is that you still think about the poor souls that were lost that night. Kudos to you!
That's so scary and no, there's nothing wrong with you gaining a little perspective from the tragedy. Jamie was midair during the 9/11 attacks and his plane made an emergency landing. That one shook him up for years.
ReplyDeleteHoly crap. I was in Massachusetts the night that happened, and it was surreal to even just watch it on the news.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you didn't go.
Good call, CCD. But I'm thinking you're high from the Krispy Kreme remnants still.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty happy that you're still around!
ReplyDeleteWow. Stuff like that is always horrible. But as you said, these are opportunities for the survivors / affected to change their focus and really deepen their level of appreciation of life.
ReplyDelete{{BIG HUG}}
Hey, uh, what's my ass doing in your header? Believe it or not, those shoes are incredibly comfortable.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that was a major nightmare. It still makes me shudder when they show the news reports on the anniversary. Our court reporting agency was supposed to handle the hundreds of depos arising out of all the lawsuits. I would have made a ton of money, but I was so glad that another agency underbid us and we didn't get the work. It would have wrecked me every single day.
I still check for the exits whenever I'm in a crowded club, and I hang out where I can get out.
LOVE the new layout!!!!!!
I went down to the scene because I was working for a newspaper in Milford and we had some people there from our town who died. It was disgusting and haunting and I'll never forget it.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, you realized you used Big K's name in that post right??