Update 1

I have a cake cooling for tonight’s small group and am letting some sugar eggs harden before I scoop them out and put them either in the oven or sit out overnight, Since I haven’t decided what I am going to with them yet, I will probably just let them sit overnight.

Last night’s SJ Giant’s game was a hoot. They won! But it took to the bottom of the 11^th to get there. It was so cold by the time the game and fireworks ended, but it was neat being at a baseball game opening day! The team got their rings (they were the CA League 2005 champs) and the new mascot arrived in style…in a helicopter! He is a big orange (we are the farm team for the SF Giants and the color was “SF Giant’s Orange”) ape and the first time the team has ever had a mascot. The pitcher had a “thing” for hitting the batters. It was funny in a sad way, someone asked (loudly) about it and someone yelled out from the crowd, “It’s just a new thing they do.” At the end the crowd was getting on the team to score and end it. There were shouts about wanting to go home and get some sleep because of work, about wanting out of the cold and wanting to get to the fireworks. The crowd thinned out as time went on. It WAS a school night after all!

“Every 15 Minutes” was presented at Leigh High School this week. It is a program that demonstrates the dangers of driving and/or getting into a car with someone who is under the influence. The first day, about 20 kids were pulled from class by the “grim reaper.” The kids knew a week in advance this was going to happen. The rest of the school had no clue. They had to leave everything and leave the room. A parent volunteer escorted the student to the command center to get made-up as a “dead” person. While that happened, the police officer and I walked in. He read the obituary and I was on the lookout for anyone who was distressed and maybe needed to talk. We left and then two parent volunteers came in to collect the books/backpacks and to put a rose, a picture and a black ribbon with the student’s name on it on that empty space.

After that happened, a crash scene was set up on the football field and it was run as a real 911 call. One kid was DOA, two were stuck in a car and the other was a drunk driver. It was pouring down rain and the students were sent home after this part of the program. What we didn’t see (until the next day) was what happened at the hospital, police station and the parent notifications. The parents were in on all of this, but it was heart wrenching to see the parents genuinely react to all of this…even knowing their child was still alive and safe.

The next day was a memorial service. We are talking flowers, special music, all the parents and a casket. The SJPD bagpipes were there as were members of the sponsoring agencies in uniform. The video showed events from the week before focusing on the kids who would be “killed” the next. It showed the grim reaper and the accident scene and the aftermath. We saw the driver being booked and put in a cell, we saw a mom having to come to the morgue and ID her child and two other families be told at the hospital their child didn’t make it. They also showed the parents going in and saying their goodbyes. I am not sure what was more jarring, seeing the kids in the bleachers in tears or the rescue/agency personnel.

That night, the kids went to a retreat center and their parents did a mini-retreat. The kids, their parents and some of their friends all had the chance to write letters. They were supposed to be in the “what I never had the chance to say” vein. They were read during the service. Finally, a local woman who lost half her family because of one drunk driver spoke. It was heartbreaking…more so because she had to speak twice and had never done that before. The accident was 9 years ago, but it as very fresh for her even now.

This is getting long, so I’ll write about the therapy stuff in another post.