Step back in time with me to Labor Day, 2002…

On that hot afternoon out back on the deck, we (my parents, Scotty and Rhonda, and I) were all sitting and talking a while before my parents took me back to Pate Rehab in Anna for another week of transitional rehab.

As Rhonda and my mother were cleaning things after lunch, Scotty and I stayed outside. He was saying something about, “Some good things happened because of the wreck, and some bad things, too. Not everything was good.”

I’d heard him say this before and always wondered what he meant but he would never tell me…until this time.

As Rhonda walked past him, He motioned for her to come over to us. She did…she walked over, sat down in the porch swing beside me and took my hand. Then, to my surprise, she began to cry as Scotty talked. (This “caught me off-guard,” because it wasn’t common for her to break-out into tears for no apparent reason.)

I listened as Scotty told me some tough-for-him-to-tell details about the wreck that he and my family had had to keep secret from me until, as the doctor had told them, “You’ll know when it’s time.”

Both of them were near me, Scotty (or, Scott, as he says) and Rhonda…he started saying things about that tragic night in June of 2002 that had never once entered my traumatic-brain-injury mind –  Heather had not made it; she had died.

What?!?! How???

That was a dark Labor Day for me.

So, today, I urge you – while you have this moment, please pray for her family, and then, be sure to lay hold of opportunities you have to Make A Difference Now…whatever these words mean to you, so be it…you know.