Six Years Later

It’s hard to believe it’s been six years. Six years usually isn’t a big “anniversary,” but for some reason I’ve been thinking about this a lot this year. Maybe it’s because for the first time the days on the calendar have coincided with the way it was in 2001. Maybe it’s because we went to Stillwater just last weekend. Maybe it's because this will be the first time since 2001 that OSU plays a basketball game on January 27. It's probably all of the above.

It’s been six years since we were afraid to answer the phone because each call brought bad news.

The death of a great aunt.

A plane crash carrying former coworkers and friends.

The heart attack and subsequent death of a grandfather.

All within days of each other.

We lost my Aunt Jennie on Friday, January 26, 2001. We weren’t too surprised as she was going downhill and we knew we would lose her soon. It still hit me hard, and I knew we were going to attend her funeral in Kansas.

The next day, we found out my aunt's funeral was going to be Monday, so we made arrangements to be gone for a few days and packed to leave the next day. Of course we followed the OSU basketball game as well (the Cowboys lost at Colorado), but we didn’t pay any attention to the news that evening as we packed because we didn’t think there was anything we would need to know about.

On the way to Pittsburg, Kansas, the next day, my dad called to ask if I had read the paper. We had brought that day's Dallas Morning News with us, and I had flipped though it looking at the coupons, ads, and Sports section but not really reading it. He told me that the news up in Kansas that morning was talking about how one of the planes carrying players and support staff for the OSU basketball team went down over a field in Colorado, and there were no survivors. I immediately pulled the DMN from the back seat and saw that right there on the front page right at the fold was an article talking about the crash.

On that plane was Will Hancock, who was one of my bosses and mentors when I work for the OSU Athletics Media Relations department the three previous years. One of the last emails I received from Will was from the previous November. I was toying around with going to the OSU game at the University of North Texas on November 28, 2000. It didn’t work out since John was out of town that Tuesday and Will wasn’t even sure if he would make it to the game since his wife was due with their first baby around that time. Needless to say, I wouldn’t talk to him again.

Also onboard were Bill Teegins, a sportscaster from OKC, and Kendall Durphey, who was the engineer for the radio broadcasts, and I had spent a lot of time with both of them while I was at OSU. There were 10 people total on that plane, including two players, three trainers/managers, and two pilots. Most of them I had worked with or at least talked to. All of them weren’t coming home from that game January 27, 2001.

Tuesday morning, the day after Aunt Jennie’s funeral, we decided to head out to Stillwater. Plans were still in the works for a memorial service for the plane crash victims, but I knew I wanted to be there no matter what. We hadn’t even been out of Stillwater nine months, and I thought it would be best to just go be with the other people with the Media Relations department. John had talked to his grandfather Monday night to make arrangements to stay with John's grandparents while we were in Stillwater. On our way out of Pittsburg, we received a phone call from John’s mother. His grandfather – the one he had just talked to the night before – had suffered a heart attack that morning and died.

We hadn’t even left Pittsburg yet, and our world was turned upside down again. Now we didn’t even know where we were going to be staying that night.

The rest of the week was a numbing blur of tears, family, friends, and condolences. Wednesday, January 31, we went to the OSU memorial and sat with the Media Relations staff. It was a nice ceremony, and being there helped a lot. All of John's family came to town that week, and we attended John’s grandpa’s funeral Friday, February 2.

Even though Will’s funeral wasn’t until the next Monday, we ended up coming home Saturday because I didn’t think I could take anymore. I was ready to be home.

We still can’t explain it six years later, but for some reason both of us had taken plenty of clothes as well as our birds on what was originally supposed to be a two- or three-day trip that turned into a seven-day one. I guess God was watching over us as we packed.

Snow!

No, not here in Texas, but up in Oklahoma. Despite forecasted snow of 6-9 inches, we made the trek up to Stillwater this weekend to see John's grandma. Oklahoma had been having winter weather all week, so we got to see plenty of snow. It was the first time Mara had been able to see real snow and not just the ice we get down here.

Sadly, the falling snow quickly turned to freezing rain most of the day Saturday, so no half-foot of snow as forecasted. But, what they had received earlier in the week was still around Sunday, so Mara got to run around in it some. She enjoyed that little bit so much that I think she would have a ball in 6-9 inches of the powdery good stuff.

While we were up in Stillwater, we ate at Eskimo Joe's and drove around the OSU campus some. I always feel so old when I go up there now. It's hard to believe that it's been almost seven years since we moved away. Plus, so much has changed with all of the construction that has been going on around campus, and I'm not just talking about the changes to the football stadium. (I'll probably always call it Lewis Field and not the name it goes by now.) The dorms are all different – espeically after they tore down the set of high-rises where John used to live and built suite-style dorms in it place. It's neat that we're able to go back and visit every once in a while, though.

Go Pokes!

We just finished watching one of the best college basketball games. OSU took on Texas in Gallagher-Iba, and after three overtimes, the Cowboys pulled off a two-point victory. Luckily, we didn't wake Mara up when Mario Boggan made the game-winning shot. It was a well-played game from beginning to end and definitely worth watching all the way through (all two and a half plus hours worth of it). There were many highlights from it, and it's already being dubbed an "instant classic" by TV analysts.

Watching games on TV – especially ones like this – makes me miss our college days. It's hard to believe that it's nearing 7 years since the last time I attended a game in Gallagher-Iba after attending almost all of the Cowboys' home games as well as the conference tournaments for six years. Maybe one of these days we'll finally get to see a game in the new Gallagher-Iba.

Movin' on up!

We finally received a notice yesterday that Mara's moving up to the older toddler class at school. This is the class that is geared for kids who are 18 to 24 months old, and Mara will be 2 in March. Oh well. Better late than never, I guess. At least she'll be with her friends Grace and Logan again. She spent some time in that room yesterday, and was a completely different child last night. Instead of being whiny and clingy in the evenings like she was previously, she was very happy and wanted to play all evening. It's amazing the friendships they develop at such a young age. We think this move will be really good for her even if she will be leaving Ms. Gail, who has been her primary caregiver since she started there at 10 weeks old.

She doesn't officially move until the 22nd, but she will be "visiting" next week.

Welcome to our blog

Well, we've now jumped into the wide world of blogging. I thought about starting this to post our Christmas newsletter but never got around to doing so. As for what we'll post here, I have no idea – probably updates on our family and pictures. Hope you'll come back to visit us from time to time, and be sure to leave a comment. :)