525600 Minutes

My Birthday is March 12 (the day I am posting).  March 12 will now be blocked in time in most people's memory as the date that the world changed and lockdowns began. Or at least when it started in the United States.  

I remember the days leading up to March 12, 2020 and the day after.  The photos below just seem like from a long-forgotten time.  No masks, no social distancing.  Will it ever be that way again?  Here are the memories that etched in stone from those last few days of normalcy.  

February 29, 2020, - Spent the morning watching the Olympic marathon trials in downtown Atlanta. A very crowded downtown area.  They even lit the Atlanta Olympic Flame for the event. Brian and I went to the Songs for Kids Foundation recording studio that morning as well.  He worked on his music and was able to see one of his friends sing an original song that she wrote.  We spent the afternoon at the UGA vs GT baseball game.  Brian was honored on the field with the GT Dance Marathon kids.  He even got to go in the clubhouse.  We went to the GT vs UGA Baseball game on March 1st at the Gwinett Stripers Baseball Stadium.  A UGA victory on both days.    

March 2-3, 2020:  I put the finishing touches on my presentation that I was scheduled to present at a national conference on March 17.  Ben also found out that he was accepted into a study abroad program.  He was heading to Wexford Ireland for the summer. 

March 7, 2020:  Participated with the GT Dance Marathon.  Lots of enthusiastic college students in the ballroom of the GT Student Center.  Brian and I got to ride in the Ramblin' Wreck, the historic car that drives onto the football field before the games.  

March 8, I spent an afternoon on the lake with my sister as an early birthday present.  

March 11, 2020:  Went to a Sunbelt tournament basketball game between Georgia Southern and Georgia State. A fairly large crowd at GSU Sports Arena saw the Eagles finally get past the Panthers in post-season basketball.  By winning, the  GS Eagles qualified for a trip to New Orleans for the semi-finals of the conference championship. 

 

March 12, 2020:  Ellen and Brian brought me to the Blue Ribbon Grill to eat a birthday dinner with a fantastic dessert.  

March 13, 2020:  Ben came home for Spring Break.  

In an instant, the following things happened:

• - The Olympics that those runners were racing to get into was postponed.
• - The college baseball and basketball season ended.  The Eagles didn't get to take the trip to New Orleans. 
• - My presentation and the national conference i was supposed to attend got canceled.
• - Ben's trip to Ireland got canceled.  
• - Ben had to complete his college freshmen year virtually.  Brian had to do the same for his high school freshmen year.  Our house was full of two teleworkers and two teleschoolers.

• -  Brian has not been back to the Songs for Kids studio since.  His sessons had to be done via Facetime. 

• -The Blue Ribbon Grill, and so many other resturants, had to lock the doors.  

March 14 through Memorial day are sort of a blur. We had to upgrade our internet. We didn't run out of toilet paper.  We did zoom meetings with family for Easter.  We adjusted to what we had no choice but to adjust to.  Summer, fall, and winter had a sense of getting back to normal a little bit. Social justice, election campaigns, COVID concerns and testing are the first things that come to mind.   

I can not help but wonder what it will like to be in a crowd again.  The Olympic trails brought 200,000 people to downtown on February 29.  The March 7 the GT dance marathon consisted of hundreds of people dancing, hugging, and running around in an interior ballroom.  The March 11 Basketball game had over 2,800 people cheering, high-fiving, and jumping up and down.  The restaurant had tables close together and a bar full of people.  

These events may very well be the last time in the near future where I am participating in something where masks are not being 

Now that we have gone a year, college basketball and baseball have started back. The Olympics are set to take place in the summer of 2021. The GT Dance marathon was virtual this year.  

Bens fall and spring have been hybrid.  He is getting to study abroad in the fall of 2021 in Japan.   

So in the end, I've lived another 525,600 Minutes.  I can say I'm optimistic for the next 525,600 minutes. I'm a year older, I received both of my vaccine shots, and I think the new normal will be ok.  Always looking forward.   

So for dinner tonight, I return to the Blue Ribbon Grill for the first time in a year.  Ben comes home for Spring Break on March 14 this year.  Brian starts in-person school next week.  Let's look at this as a redo......or the start of something new.  

The Shoe

 We do not post much anymore about our accident in December of 2011.  Brian is now 16.  What 16 year old want to hear stories about themselves when they were seven?  Especially when the story is such a gut-wrenching one.

We share our story with the Children's Miracle Network Dance Marathons at UGA and GT each year.  We get a chance to brag about the hospitals and medical professionals that did so much for us. We have enjoyed getting to know the other families and the social scene of those events.Brian loves the students. Sharing the early days of our journey for the dance marathons is about as much as we want to relive it. So much is going on these days.  We try to look forward and not back.  

However, I want to relive a story that we are not able to share too often since it is not a part of the hospitals.  In fact, it was something we didn’t know about until months after it happened.

Two days after our accident Steven and Freiya Brown were driving down Old River Road to the Union United Methodist Church.  UUMC is a small church in very rural Bulloch County. Steve served as the pastor Freiya played the piano every Sunday morning. I remember Steve and Freiya fondly when they served as a counselor in the 1980’s for church youth trips that I attended.  They have a son around my age and we all attended Pittman Park UMC at that time.

Steve and Freiya were heading to Church the first Sunday in December of 2011,  They had heard about the accident two days before. .I don’t know if they even knew that they had a connection to me from over 20 years before, When they drove by the scene of the accident, they saw a child's tennis shoe on the side of the road.  They felt compelled to stop and pick it up.

They took that shoe and placed it on the altar of the church.  Our family was prayed for by the Browns and the entire congregation of UUMC for many months. The shoe remained on the altar the entire time. I’m certain they prayed for healing, understanding, peace, and prayers of thankfulness when Brian left hospice, checked out of the hospital, spoke his first words, took his first steps, and all the other joys that followed.

It was late spring before we heard that this happened.  We were not certain that it was Brians shoe. We did not know if Brian lost a shoe that night.    

The Browns invited my parents to a Sunday Service at UUMC on Old River Road in the Spring of 2012.  They presented the shoe to mom and dad after it stayed on the altar all that time.  Yes, it was indeed Brian's shoe.  

Freiya Brown passed away on February 20.  A casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her funeral is tomorrow.  My parents and Ben, who is in his second year at Georgia Southern, will attend the service.  It is time for the Murkison’s to send our prayers to the Browns.  Rest in Peace Freiya.  Thanks for taking good care of Brian’s shoe!

*Note* some of the details of this story may be incorrect. The memory of such things as this sometimes changes details.