Living with the Lisics

It has been just over six months since I have posted anything on this blog.  Six months ago I was so happy and content with life. Christmas had just come and gone...and if you know me you know that Christmas is my absolute favorite time of year...and life was good. Wes and I were so blessed this year for Christmas receiving so many wonderful gifts (he loved the iPad I gave him!!) and being able to spend time with all our families. That is the one thing I will treasure forever.

This is my cousin Tyler.

And this is the only picture I took of him at Christmas at my grandma's house. It is the last picture I'll ever take of him. Tyler was in a car accident the night before New Years Eve and was killed instantly. I can still remember waking up on Monday morning and talking with Wes about what we were going to do for New Years when I got the call from my mom. To say the least, this was such a tragedy to my family and came as a complete shock. I remember just thinking about my grandparents - wondering how they could ever be dealing with losing their only grandson. The only boy in the family to carry on the Wheatley name. And then I thought of my aunt and uncle. They had just lost their only son. How can anyone deal with that? I was unbelievably sad. Honestly I had never had anything tragic happen to me or my family like this. I still miss Tyler so much. It is crazy because he moved up to Minnesota for college then was attending grad school in Oregon and we did not get to see him very often. But every now and then I get really sad thinking about it. Thinking about how he will never be at another Christmas or Thanksgiving again. How I will never see him and Wes hang out like they always talked about. Or see him and my sister argue about music like they used to when we were teenagers. Tyler was so incredibly smart and had so much potential. He was studying economics (of all things!), and he traveled all over the world. 

I saw him just a few days before he died. And I didn't think anything about it. Because it was Christmas. We always saw him on Christmas at Dee's and I figured we always would. The way things can just suddenly change really hit me hard. Wes and I did not do anything for New Years. We stayed at home together and just spent time together thinking about the upcoming year. 

I have not posted since all of this happened. I didn't know how to put it into words, and I kinda just didn't want to. But in the last six months, I feel that I have changed so much. I will be posting more in the upcoming weeks about lessons I have learned and hopefully you can relate. I thank God for giving me challenges to overcome and teaching me to really live life the way He wants me too. I have such a long way to go to be where God wants me but I know I am on the right path.  

God bless.

-samantha