Matt's nephew, Gavin, is a wonderful, smart, sweet boy who has muscular dystrophy. He was just accepted into a medical study here in Salt Lake, so we have the opportunity to help their family! Gavin has to come out regularly for testing and his parents can't come every time, but thankfully we have LOTS of family in Utah to help! Matt and I signed up to take Gavin to one of his appointments, and we had a ton of fun with him!We may also have traumatized him through several inadvertent actions which I claim NO responsibility for...
Anyway, Matt took the day off and picked him up from the airport
Then got him ready for his appointment and took him to the hospital. They had a great time and everything went well... and then Matt gave me a strange call. Someone had passed away in a car accident literally right in front of our house, and he had received a couple of phone calls from people making sure we were okay. He called to let me know, in case the police were still there when I got off work. When I got home, I found our house still surrounded by police cars, our driveway completely taped off, and a large group of people standing at the end of our driveway around a body. I asked a policeman if I could go inside and he offered to escort me in, but I quickly decided against it. I felt so bad for the family that was gathered, I didn't want to disturb them at all. I called Matt and told him that we couldn't bring Gavin to the house and traumatize him, and he agreed that he would pick me up down the block and we would go to dinner.
As I waited in the car for Matt to pick me and Jas up, I felt so sad for the grieving family. There were so many people gathered, I could tell the person must have lived close by and been very loved (I later found out he lived just a block or two away). As I sat in my car trying to be inconspicuous, the sun started to set. Suddenly, a member of the group stepped away from my house and walked across the parking lot, stopping on the grass directly in front of my car. I watched as he faced East, closed his eyes, held up his hands, and began reciting prayers. I was struck with awe as he knelt on the ground ten feet from my car and offered praise to his God in the midst of his grief. I was so overcome with reverence and respect for this humble man and his beautiful display of faith that tears came to my eyes.
Matt came to pick me up (thankfully without Gavin seeing any dead bodies), and Gavin said he wanted to go to Olive Garden for dinner.
Jas trying to smile and eat fishy crackers at the same time = L to the O to the L.
Dinner was fine (except for one very cranky baby) and we eventually headed home, only to find that there were still tons of police cars out front. But the body had been removed and the police allowed us to go inside, so in we went.
We spent the rest of the night continuing to scare Gavin with our creepy Halloween decorations ("There sure are a lot of skulls....."), watching some planet of the apes movie (with his dad's permission!) that definitely ended up being too sad and intense so I made Matt turn it off, and by making him sleep in the snake room. He even said the next morning he had nightmares about clowns. Best Aunt and Uncle awards for sure. But we made up for it with a cute bunny.
We love you Gavin! And we hope you don't have any lasting PTSD from staying at our house!
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