Last Breath

 This post is a better late than never post. I meant to do it on the 2 year anniversary of what I am about to tell you, but sometimes reliving those emotions on the very day is too much for me. Even now I am tearing up. I hope you can take to heart the message I am about to share. 

Our perfect little batch was going along one day, when I got a phone call on March 3, 2011 that would change our lives forever... 

Mr. Fields sister had been in a terrible accident, an accident her 3 youngest children watched happen. No words can explain the pain of this loss. Mr. Fields sister was one of those women who not only touched the lives around her, but made a deep impression. She was the best mother, wife, sister, and aunt. She welcomed me into the family with open arms. If I had something I wanted to tell someone, I would call her. She gave the best advice. If you needed her there, she was there. Her youngest, at the time of our wedding, had been in the hospital. She still made the 10 hour drive to our wedding, by herself, right after her child was released from the hospital. She was there...always!

She had been driving her 3 youngest, and some neighbor kids home from school in her 15 passenger van that day. She pulled into her driveway, opened the garage, and their dog ran out. She had forgotten he was in the garage, and jumped out of the van to chase after him. The car began to roll down the driveway, and my sister-in-law chased after the car (motherly instincts). She was hit down under the front of the car and the front wheel was stopped right on her chest. A neighbor boy rode past on his bike, and ran home to tell his dad who called 911. The paramedics think my sister-in-law did not have oxygen for 20 minutes. They got her heart started again and raced her to the hospital. My brother-in-law drove up to his house not long after the accident to find police and neighbors at his house. He had no idea what had happened...

The next day we drove the 9 hours to the hospital...we didn't think, we just went. I wanted to be there, I wanted to be at her side. 

My sister-in-law was pronounced brain dead on March 6, 2011. She wasn't coming back. She had 5 children, all 10 and under, and a loving husband left here without her. Many tears were shed, memories shared, heartache felt, and oh the heartache! 

Even though this is one of the hardest things I have had to face in this life, it has also been a huge learning experience. It made me stronger in my faith, it made me want to live life more fully, it made me grateful for my husband and children and the time I have with them. I miss her every day, but her love and memory lives on!

One heavenly gift was the fact that we got to spend a whole week with Mr. Fields sister right before she died. It was heaven sent. God was giving us one last time with her before we would lose her. 

Since that time a lot has happened. I remember all of us being in the hospital and thinking, what is our brother-in-law going to do? How is he going to raise these 5 children alone? Well, I am pleased to say that happiness was found again. A woman my sister-in-law and brother-in-law both knew had recently lost her husband, and was a widow with her twin boys. Her and my brother-in-law began to talk for support. Eventually their relationship grew, and they decided to merge their two families. They are happily married with their 7 children, and have triplet boys on the way! 

There are ways to find joy in every situation. Don't take what you have for granted.

My sister-in-law with our oldest.