Today has been a busy day and I feel like I just need to take a break from tasks at hand to refocus. So, I’m blogging this moving concert from earlier this Fall.
The concert was from the Trinity Communications / WBCL Fall concert series. Tenth Ave. North and Austin French took the stage in a high energy and moving concert. There was a lot going on in this show but most of all I know that hearts were stirred. Including mine.
Let me just backtrack a little bit on a couple of events from 2019. In January of this year, some of my dear friends lost her beautiful daughter, Alexa, from heart complications. I knew Alexa personally and she always held such a soft spot in my heart. This news rocked Alexa’s parents’ and loved ones’ worlds. It’s now been 11 months and I speak their names to the Throne of Heaven every single day. It still doesn’t seem real!
Just a few months after Alexa’s passing, I was photographing another concert and Austin French was there. Alexa’s parents were there too. Shortly into the concert, Austin’s latest song started with a quiet introduction W H Y G O D, do people have to die? A daughter or a son, sudden and so young long before their time. I didn’t know where my friends were sitting but, wanted to go find them so badly. I knew they must be falling apart because I was on the brink. That song…. is so raw and real.
Fast forward to September 1, 2019. It was just a typical Sunday. We were getting ready to eat lunch at my mother-in-laws when I noticed that I had a missed call from my dear friend, Brenda, in PA. We talk all of the time, but never at lunch on a Sunday. I just ‘knew’ something was wrong. I checked voicemail and it was Brenda’s sister, Paula, with a message to call her. Her voice was cracking and I knew it was bad. (Let me just stop here and say that Brenda is like a sister to me. We are like twins separated at birth. Her sisters and brother are like siblings to me. We are family, but not by blood.)
I called Paula back and her words, ‘Trevor was killed in a motorcycle wreck’ stopped me in my tracks. Trevor is the only son of Brenda and her husband Paul. The only brother to sweet Whitney and friend, cousin and nephew to many. It was just unfathomable. I knew I had to immediately get to PA to be with them. My clients so graciously allowed me to reschedule their sessions for the week and I drove to be with Brenda and the family. There were tears, and there were agonizing, painful cries of WHY.
Now, two friends who I hold so closely have lost children in 2019. My heart aches for them and the shock that it was/is to their worlds. I know they ask WHY, but I also know that they’re clinging to their faith in the deepest valley of their lives.
So, this post is dedicated to two young lives who touched mine. Alexa Rose and Trevor Paul are deeply loved and missed by all of the lives they encountered. We will meet on the other side, and Alexa, I promise I won’t ask you to take your hair-tie off of your wrist!
Love to all, Amy
