Wish It Were Upbeat News.....

I'm sorry to have teased about news, though each time I posted this week, my mind was often elsewhere. Time was limited in the last week, lately I have been working Thursday and Friday and when the weekend is here, my schedule is different. Hated to post downer news again and was also hoping to have some closure to the situation as well. That occurred late yesterday afternoon.

Monday, of last week, as I was driving back after dropping off VG at school, I heard in a news break on the radio of a young man, 21, missing in a lake in the region after he and two others were in a canoe that capsized Saturday night. They named the missing man and I immediately knew the name, figured there wasn't many with same last name, called my husband at home. He told me a bit more after I arrived home, finding reports online when I arrived home. I searched online and found out he had indeed attended the same high school as my son and knew it had to be a friend he attended school with from 2nd grade through high school. In junior high he and my son spent the night with one another countless times, how many times I had seen him through the years since their class at the Catholic school was less than 30 total. I called my son, he begin to get in touch with friends and before long we knew it was him and who the other two that made it to shore were. March 27th, he and the friends were at the older boy's family's lake house celebrating the older one's birthday because his family was out of the country. Yes, they had been drinking and I don't know what else, went out in the canoe at 10:30 p.m. or so, no life jackets, and the weather windy, a lake advisory, so the water was choppy. Apparently had been out there about 2 hours, canoe overturned when they turned in the wind, two of the boys held on, the other started swimming, thinking he was going towards the bank. They saw him go down. They were screaming at him, some neighbors turned the light on at their dock and the boys realized more where they were with the light but he was gone. Through facebook my son and many of the friends that finished 8th grade together got in touch with one another, shared information and planned to get together this past Friday night. The family planned a visitation Easter Sunday evening and a memorial yesterday even though they had not recovered his body. Our family went to visitation and my son and I went to the memorial yesterday. Late yesterday afternoon they finally found his body after nine days. The is large, much of it over 100 feet deep with trees under the water because it is a manmade lake. But we are so relieved that he was finally found. It has been emotional and heartwrenching for them I know. My son and he were not as close through high school, different interests, doing different things, but that 8th grade class was so close and they have really bonded through this and it has been a blessing for the to reconnect with each other, their families and the teachers that they have seen. One of the other boys was also one of their class members and he is not doing well at all, very, very badly, almost catatonic state. The kids are trying to reach out to him, writing him a card that got to him, sending him messages on facebook.....the older guy is taking it hard and feeling guilt apparently. Sorry, to be so wordy about a stranger, but it's been kind of surreal. Apparently they were having a press conference at the lake today but it is not on our local stations and I didn't find in online. Gotta run, well, hobble to find prom earrings, get groceries......love to you all, hug your loved ones....or send great messages!!!!