The quiet.

Tuesday May 11 2022

My day started almost as usual, getting ready for work, helping get the grand-babies ready for school. Me and Amber made our coffee and packed our stuff to head out the door. Just one thing that wasn’t usual;the quiet.

We knew all about what you had to do on May 10, we questioned and gave our advice, we prayed. we checked our clocks and thought about the 5 hour time difference and tried to brainstorm what might be holding you up from calling us that night. We eventually went to bed without trying to call or text you because, well you are a man and didn’t need your mama and sister hounding you. That was a regret now that we have but we also know we may not have gotten an answer.

The morning of the 11th was quiet between all of us, I was trying not to worry that we had not heard from you. I didn’t want to call again because of the time difference so I didn’t . We left for school and work and started our day, Mike was in Oregon so I didn’t call and wake him up, I just prayed on my way to work. I remembered a dream I had had in the early morning and was trying g to decifer it in my mind. I kept praying.

What happened next was blurry almost, my phone hardly ever had service in my classroom and it was ringing. By the time I got to it it was going to voice mail. I saw who was calling and thought to myself that can’t be for me. The Saint Johns County Sheriff’s Department was calling. I hesitantly called back only to be put on hold for a supervisor, and then that she couldn’t tell me anything other than, I need to make my way to the station, I frantically tell my coworker I had to leave, I tried to call Mike; no answer. Mike calls back and he doesn’t know yet what’s happened but he is on the phone also. I hang up realize I can’t get out of our parking lot so I go out the wrong way trying not to cause any accident. I call my brother Matthew, I know he hears in my voice something is wrong. I call Amber to check on her, she is fine until I tell her who called.

I don’t remember the 30 minute drive other than praying and screaming and crying. Amber called mid drive to tell me she checked the camera and even though she is crying that there were men in uniform at the door it didn’t compute in my brain. My sister-in-law Michele and niece Alana meet us because they are close. The four of us go inside and laid eyes on the men that were at our door. I cannot get the words or the cries out of my heart from that moment. I begged for this not to be true, but two years later it still is.

There are still quiet times that I just can’t talk or don’t know what to say. The only thing is we will never stop loving our Seth Michael. We I’ll never stop telling your story and keeping your memories alive. We are so grateful for all of the love and prayers and just kind things that have been done in Seth’s honor.

Yesterday, May10,2024 I had asked my Heavenly Father for some of those little God winks that come to us and I believe you gave us a big one. We had a massive Solar Storm that allowed us to see the Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights here in Florida on the hardest day of our lives. Funny thing is I usually see this kinda thing in the news ahead of time but because of my state of mind I had not looked at the news. It wasn’t until celebrating you and one of your favorite places to eat, Beaches of Vilano, that I heard about it. Can I just say wow!!!! I saw them in Florida in 1989 without using cell phone cameras or any other camera so this was really cool. The you father for loving on us.