We Had No Idea

The entry is related to yesterdays entry entitled "your prayers".

As I sit here in a hotel room in Austin, Texas watching the early morning sunlight awaken the sleeping city I cannot help but reflect on the tragic news that I received last night. As you can imagine I have thought about it a lot, and my sleep was definitely impacted. I'm hoping my mom and aunt made it safely to Phoenix. It's too early out west for me to call anyone and find out. So, I will trust and wait.

It was not this last Saturday, but the Saturday before (July 25th), that my family including my mom, dad, and nephew Marc drove from Gold Beach, Oregon to Sacramento via Grants Pass, Oregon and interstate 5. I will have to tell you that i haven't personally seen my cousin Bryan in over 10 years. I knew he was working construction in Oregon somewhere, but that was it. So, the fact that he was battling the wildfires in California was a surprise. In fact, it's quite eery to me that we had lunch in Mt. Shasta, California so close to where he was. The smoke and the haze. The sight of it and the smell of it is fresh in my mind. I took some pictures as we were driving down the road. One is a hazy picture of Mt. Shasta (or what we could see of it...i'm sure it's bigger than that). Another is of the road ahead where on either side you can see red fire retardant....at first i thought it was red dirt then I realized that it wasn't. I also took some pictures of fire trucks headed back to Southern California with tired and weary firefighters on them. I thought it was all "interesting" and part of the story of our vacation. I had no idea that it was real. I mean, I took the pictures because I knew it was real. Real to someone. But not "real" to me. It was relevant as a news story. But, not as one that would bring tears to my eyes and pain to my heart. My Aunt Donna is one of the sweetest people you'll ever meet. While I wasn't close to Bryan, I mourn for him. And the pain, the tears, the sorrow reaches deep within me at the fact that my aunt has lost her oldest son. The phone call my mom received years ago when Bryan was brought home as their son was one of excitement and joy. The phone call she received last night that Bryan was killed was filled with anguish and pain.

So, I had no idea that Bryan was fighting fires. I had no idea that these pictures would become real to me. I had no idea.....

This picture was taken at the Black Bear Diner in Mount Shasta City where we had lunch. Again, we had no idea that Bryan was nearby fighting fires. (We knew he was doing construction in Oregon. Apparently there wasn't much work for him there. So, someone told him about this opportunity to fight fires in California with this company which I am assuming was Grayback)


Of course please pray for my Aunt and Uncle, Jim and Donna Rich. They are supposed to be flown from Phoenix to Oregon at some point for the funeral. I understand that the bodies haven't been recovered yet. So, I'm not sure when that will be. They have another son named Lee. I'm sure that this is hard on him too.

Here is a link to this mornings San Francisco Chronicle story.