THANKFUL HEART

Here it is the day before Thanksgiving and all I can think of is a tragedy that happened back in the 70's. When I think of pumpkin pies I always think of that day..the day a young boy was killed near our home. He and his cousin had taken a motorcycle and were trying to bury it in a mountain of sand. They were digging a tunnel when the sand collapsed. The younger boy was able to get out. He could not get the motorcycle started and so he ran from one home to another in our rural area, but finding no one at the closer homes...even then they were far apart. By the time he reached our place it had to be 45 minutes to an hour after the accident. I dropped my pie making and sought out Ned's dad who lived next door and two of my older sons Bruce about 12 and Craig 10. We got in our station wagon and drove to the county owned sand "mountain" where I dropped off my family so they could start digging. I wasn't thinking that the mountain could collapse on them too. I then left in the car and went to the Verlyn Cole home and burst into their house. We called emergency and I went and parked at the corner to show the emergency vehicles where the out of the way place this sand mountain was, while the Coles went to the site to help. By the time I arrived it was dark, but crowded with people. Mrs. Cole came up to me and put her arm around me and said, "it's too late...he is dead". I broke apart then. All I could say was that I should have been there..Ned's dad did not know CPR, but I later learned that the boy died within minutes as sand was in his nose and down his mouth. It is really hard to shake an experience like that and not let it consume my thanksgiving time.

I am so very thankful for the myriad of blessings that people have today so that we can communicate in so many ways. Cell phones for one. That boy probably would have had a cell phone on him and he could have called for help immediately. I could have called also instead of running all over trying to find neighbor help. I could have reached Ned for his help too.

I am grateful for the help of family in good times and in bad. We have learned to pull together and to give support in all things.

I am grateful for the time we do stop to thank God for our blessings that He has giving us...our families, our friends, our community, our homes, the Gospel and His Son.

On Thanksgiving Day we gather our loved ones together and we all praise God with something we are thankful for. I already know that all of us are grateful to be an earthly family and pray that we will have the opportunity to be an eternal one.

I want to say how thankful I am for you...my loved ones, my friends who are reading this. May your day be full of fun, smiles, laughter and enjoyment. We don't need turkey and all the fixings to have a good time...we just need hugs and show love and have lots of belly laughs.

Pumpkin pie was my mom's favorite....that is what I should think of and let the past be.