that day

I don't want to talk about the storm. I don't want to talk about how hard it hit the south. I don't want to talk about the fact that my father lost his best friend. I don't want to have to relive the horrible weekend that I had, but I need to. I need to talk about it, because if I don't I swear I will surely go insane.

My mother called me at 12:30 on Wednesday night to tell me that my Pop's oldest and dearest friend Robert Jenkins had been killed in the Tornado that swept through Clarke Co. that day.

Every important event in my life and my sister's life, he was present. He treated my sister and I like we were his own children. Showing us love and affection. Which in turn helped me create a lasting bond with his daughter, that she would always be my like my sister. So, I can see where it upset me. I can see how I could be so emotional. I've never lost anyone that close to a tragedy. I still don't believe it.

My husband went to the call that night to help find people, but law enforcement wouldn't let any of the County Volunteers down to the site. I'm glad he didn't see him.

I just want to ask God "Why?" I don't understand why this happened. I know that he lets bad things happy to bring us closer to him, but couldn't there have been another way?

I didn't go to work on Thursday, instead I bought a dozen Chance and Dooley doughnuts and  went to have coffee with my dad. We managed to eat almost the whole box without even thinking about it. Robert was my father's best friend. There is no other way to put it. He started working for him part time when he was in his teens.... 42 years ago. I'm not joking when I say .... life-long friend. He was always there to help when it came to working on the Pipe Organ, the Monday Night Group. As long as I can remember, the guys would get together and bull shit around, tinker with the Pipe Organ at the Temple Theater, or work on some project my dad had come up with.

The funeral was on Saturday... I was nauseated and on the verge of tears the entire time. I held it together mostly, except for a couple of times. One thing that will always stick out in my mind, his hands. Robert had rough weathered working man hands... but not on Saturday. They didn't look like his hands. Maybe that is why the reality of all this hasn't set in yet? It didn't look like him at all.

The storms destroyed the south. I pray for the people that were affected by it, but most of all I pray that God will fill the void in my heart.