Reality Bites

I spent the past 3 weeks blogging about our adventure - the fun we had, the sites we saw and the (vast amounts of) food we ate. It was all lighthearted and funny. However, today reality set in, on so many levels.

Debbie spent most of the day in the kitchen making 64 pieces of gefilte fish for the upcoming New Year (the house has the smell and I have the heartburn from the smell to prove it). Ethan and Brian spent a good part of the day doing the summer homework they needed to complete (nothing like the last minute). Amanda got in her last licks of excessive TV watching. And I resumed my weekly trips to Whole Foods, with extra stops at Bed, Bath & Beyond and Waldbaum's for gefilte fish-related items. We also spent part of the evening organizing the kids' backpacks for the first day of school tomorrow and figuring out what clothes fit for the holidays.

But the biggest slap in the reality face came early this afternoon when Marc called me from the ballfield to tell me that Lou Messina, someone I had coached against at Merillon (and who had at one point coached both of the boys) had passed away. Evidently, he had a stroke last week, was doing better, but then something happened and he passed away today. It was quite a shock to me, as while I didn't really know Lou off the field, on the field I liked him a lot. He was always positive, and was very involved with his two boys, who were both a year or so younger than our boys.

We told the boys this evening about Lou, and they were both sad to hear the news. Brian immediately went onto the Merillon web site, but then we got busy with the organizing and we didn't talk any more about it. That is, until we tucked Brian into bed and he began to cry. I asked what was wrong and he didn't want to talk about it, saying it would make him sad to talk about it. We asked if it was about Lou, and he said yes. I think it was as much about Lou himself as it was about the idea of losing one of us. We sat with him for a while, then he started to close his eyes. Debbie had to go check on Amanda for something, and I asked Brian if he wanted me to lie with him. He did. So, for the next 30+ minutes I stayed with him, until he was almost asleep. I hadn't done that since he was a baby, but he needed it.

This is just another reason why we have to live life to the fullest. You never know when reality will come bite you in the ass.

R.I.P. Lou. We will all miss you.