lean on God in all times

this weekend i lost my cousin to a car accident. he was alone & forutnately no others were hurt. officers reported that he was in the other lane & over-corrected. the driver side hit a brick mailbox & it was said that he died on impact.

peter was only 17. a senior in high school -- graduating this may. he had plans to study psychology at the university of north georgia, where his older brother is currently attending. they planned to get an apartment together & experience college together. they were the greatest of best friends. peter also has four sisters. each very close to him.

i got the phone call saturday morning at work. i just remember the urgency in my mom's voice. you could hear she had been crying & by the way she was whispering, meant she didn't want my younger sisters to know yet. i wept & kept asking "what?" like what she was saying was a cruel joke. M & i immediately headed over to be with my aunt, uncle, & cousins. they live only 10 short minutes from us & as we are about to turn into their neighborhood, we saw the tires marks & the empty spot where a brick mailbox use to stand. he was that close to home.

death is something i hope to never be comfortable or familiar with. but that means it will always hurt & never seem fair. i remember when my grandmother & maw maw pasted away. they were much older & each sick. they had already prepared for death. so when the time came, everyone was ready. it was still hard but we were able to prepare & know they each lived a full life. but peter's death is nothing like that. i think about how young he was. how he hadn't even touched the surface of this world. how his parents & siblings will forever feel incomplete. how this feels like it is a dream & we will see him again for the holidays. it is all so shocking & unreal that i don't want to accept it. it really hurts that M & i are the closest to them, yet we never made an effort to visit them since we got married. it makes you realize what you have & what's important.

but you wouldn't believe the amount of support & love they are receiving from family & friends. peter was such a well liked young man. he always had a smile on his face & could turn any situation into a good one. he was a fabulous man of God that had an impact of many people's lives. i know he's smiling right now, looking forward to the day he will be reunited with the ones he loves.

we love you peter.