Wow... this week was weird...
Well... talk about an emotional roller coaster. It was a very bad week for my family, and a very good week for some of my closest friends. Last Monday my friend Jessica asked me to be her maid of honor (I know it's supposed to be matron, but I hate that word), so that was so happy. Then Tuesday my cousin intentionally drove his car into my grandmother's house. So that started this major chaos, and I spent the evening in this schizophrenic nightmare where I'm doing happy wedding shopping with Jessica and her family and on the cell phone trying to help and stay informed of what's happening in St. Louis with Jimmy.
So Wednesday I got a call from my mom that Jimmy committed suicide. This was my dear little cousin. He always had some issues, but he was my sweet little cousin, and I loved him. He has a 3 year old son and a beautiful wife. He fought for our country in Iraq and came home with PTSD. The ARMY knew full well he needed help and sent him home. My Aunt Merie took him to the VA for a psych consult on Tuesday, and they couldn't do anything but give him sedatives since their psychiatrist leaves at 3:00 pm. What the hell is that? We spend more on our military than the rest of the world combined, yet we can't staff our VA Hospitals??? Write your Congressmen about that please.
So Thursday one of my best friends, Meryl, took me out to pretend everything was okay and we played poker and I got wasted. That was nice. I got drunk enough to sleep, and I needed some rest. Friday was Mike and Jessica's rehearsal dinner, so I went to that, got a migraine, took a muscle relaxer, and slept. Saturday was a fun day because Mike and Jessica got married. They teach swing dance, and all their little swing dance friends did these crazy dances at the reception. It was pot luck, and we had yummy food. They were so happy to get married they both started randomly bouncing during the ceremony. It was great.
Then we went home and packed and got ready for Sunday. Sunday we drove the 8.5 hours to St. Louis and went straight to the viewing. That was pretty terrible to see, but I never realized just how necessary it is. Very helpful to all of us no matter how sad. So then Monday was the funeral, and it was beautiful but horrible. The pastor said great things that really made us all feel better. Whitney (Jimmy's sister) arranged for the pastor's daughter to sing some praise song, and then his son sang Blackbird. I never listened to the lyrics to that song in this type of context. It was perfect. Whitney gave a beautiful eulogy and read an amazing poem. His wife Amanda put together a slide show, so there were pictures going the whole time. His son drew a picture that said "I love you, Daddy." They buried him with that. After the funeral we went to Jefferson Barracks for the internment, and they gave him an honor guard and presented flags and medals to his wife and mother. Then the church had set up a reception unbeknown to any of us, so Merie didn't have to host hundreds of people at her house. That was lovely of them to do.
So now we're back in Knoxville, and here is a link to some pictures.
http://merie.smugmug.com/Sweet%20Memories%20of%20Jimmy
So Wednesday I got a call from my mom that Jimmy committed suicide. This was my dear little cousin. He always had some issues, but he was my sweet little cousin, and I loved him. He has a 3 year old son and a beautiful wife. He fought for our country in Iraq and came home with PTSD. The ARMY knew full well he needed help and sent him home. My Aunt Merie took him to the VA for a psych consult on Tuesday, and they couldn't do anything but give him sedatives since their psychiatrist leaves at 3:00 pm. What the hell is that? We spend more on our military than the rest of the world combined, yet we can't staff our VA Hospitals??? Write your Congressmen about that please.
So Thursday one of my best friends, Meryl, took me out to pretend everything was okay and we played poker and I got wasted. That was nice. I got drunk enough to sleep, and I needed some rest. Friday was Mike and Jessica's rehearsal dinner, so I went to that, got a migraine, took a muscle relaxer, and slept. Saturday was a fun day because Mike and Jessica got married. They teach swing dance, and all their little swing dance friends did these crazy dances at the reception. It was pot luck, and we had yummy food. They were so happy to get married they both started randomly bouncing during the ceremony. It was great.
Then we went home and packed and got ready for Sunday. Sunday we drove the 8.5 hours to St. Louis and went straight to the viewing. That was pretty terrible to see, but I never realized just how necessary it is. Very helpful to all of us no matter how sad. So then Monday was the funeral, and it was beautiful but horrible. The pastor said great things that really made us all feel better. Whitney (Jimmy's sister) arranged for the pastor's daughter to sing some praise song, and then his son sang Blackbird. I never listened to the lyrics to that song in this type of context. It was perfect. Whitney gave a beautiful eulogy and read an amazing poem. His wife Amanda put together a slide show, so there were pictures going the whole time. His son drew a picture that said "I love you, Daddy." They buried him with that. After the funeral we went to Jefferson Barracks for the internment, and they gave him an honor guard and presented flags and medals to his wife and mother. Then the church had set up a reception unbeknown to any of us, so Merie didn't have to host hundreds of people at her house. That was lovely of them to do.
So now we're back in Knoxville, and here is a link to some pictures.
http://merie.smugmug.com/Sweet%20Memories%20of%20Jimmy