Feeling Old ... Part II

You can look at my profile here on the left and see my "story" but let me explain it to you a little better.

Steve and I dated our junior year of high school. Through the whole teenage process of life, we broke up a couple of times during that year. We were "officially" broken up when Steve's accident occurred on Sept. 30 1988. I received a call from a friend in the middle of "that" night to let me know of his condition. It wasn't good at all. He had completely severed his spinal cord and destroyed vertebrae C6 and C7 and would be a quadriplegic. He even had a hairline fracture on C2 which is what controls your breathing.....thankfully he never needed a tracheotomy as he already had enough on his plate.

This was the start of our senior year and it was the talk of the school. EVERYone was up at the hospital for months and months. Then rehab came and people were still coming for weeks and weeks, then days and days, then all of the sudden it was a handful of us. In the end it was his family, one of his best friends of all time even to this day, and ME.

(I promise this is going somewhere.............)

When I would go to visit Steve in rehab, there was a guy (Alan) there with his family ALL the time. They were so much fun!! His wife (Marsha) would bring up games and their kids...Steffanie 13 and Alisha 8....would entertain their dad (and themselves) . It really helped Steve to cope with what he was going through. I thoroughly enjoyed this little family. Turns out they lived on the other side of town (45 minutes to an hour away from us). Once Steve was released back into the real world he kept in touch with Alan. They even went as far as creating a wheelchair rugby team that same year. Rugby became Steve's (AND Alan's) outlet. (Quad Rugby was featured in a documentary last year called Murderball.) They felt alive again! Marsha and myself even became certified referees and traveled all over the United States with the team. Needlesstosay all of us bonded very quickly. People in similar circumstances, even with the difference in age, tend to do that in order to cope.

Let's fast forward to the PRESENT:

Last night we attended little Alisha's wedding!!!! Let me rephrase that!!

WE ATTENDED THE WEDDING OF THE LITTLE 8 YEAR-OLD BRATTY DAUGHTER OF OUR BEST FRIENDS THAT WE MET IN 1988!!! Alisha was Brittney's age when we met her!! Alisha was ALWAYS around her mother and me at "rugby" events. She was a little tag along whom I just adored. There was 10 years between us, but we didn't even care. We often joked that we were sisters and we'd call Marsha MOM.

Time just flies by TOO quickly.

Here's a few pictures........ Since the wedding was at 7:30 and our boys go to sleep at 8:00, we figured it wouldn't be a good idea to take them along. So, the "older" Kearleys had a late night and the boys had a sleepover at Na-Na's house. It was so strange to wake up on my own terms this morning! AND the house is awfully quiet right now!

Alisha was BARBIE herself! The little girls loved it!

Boy have we come a LONG way!

Alan and Marsha.......such proud parents!

Brittney STOP growing up...right now!! Before we know it SHE'LL be getting married!