Would've, Could've, Should've!

Blog Hop! As I mentioned before I have entered this blog hop through McKlincky.It's great fun and tons of people come and view your blog. Each week they have a "theme" and this was this weeks. Fill in the blanks! The theme was e-mailed to me and right under that e-mail I received an e-mail that a friend had just passed away and his funeral was yesterday. No, no, no this blog post isn't going to be terribly sad. But, I did a lot of thinking yesterday. I'm a stewer! (once again is that a word?) I sit on stuff and it consumes me. I think , I think, I think! Like everyone I am finding that as I am getting older more people are passing away. Whether it be family because they are aging as you are aging or friends. I'm only soon to be 35 yrs. old. I still feel 21 yrs. old! Anyways, that's not my point! Along with the e-mail about my friend I received this and it got me thinking "What would I do?" I'm obviously not really wanting to fill in the blanks since I haven't (don't much care for this one honestly!) but, I would love to tell you about my friend. It's kinda sad with a wee little bit happy.Not sure if some of you are aware of the fact that I wasn't always a stay at home mom. I used to be a Restaurant manager. Well technically the bar manager but you are over the entire restaurant to of course. But with my main focus being the bar you make sure where all your inventory (liquor) is going, take care of your bartenders, scheduling, ordering, doing inventory and making sure your "regulars" are happy! I worked between 60-70 hours a week! Anywho, Dave was a regular. When I met Dave he was surrounded by people all the time. He drank a TON! He was in and out of the bar restaurant all day everyday and didn't miss a beat. We would talk from time to time. When the restaurant was in between rush times I'd sit and talk with him about his day and eventually deeper talks about his life. Dave was about early to mid forty's in age and him and his family owned a timber company. They had a TON of money. People were always around him because he would always spring for the bill or they just plain old wanted something. As our "restaurant" friendship grew I learned that he was once married and he still loved her dearly (he actually never got divorced). I saw his Mom and dad on occasions when they'd come into eat after church on Sundays. He was an alcoholic and thankfully he never drove...ever! He had incredible cars that everyone drove for him. People flocked to him because if you remotely said that you wanted something then he would get it! He frequented strip clubs and occasionally a girl would come into our restaurant for lunch with him. It was all quite sad. If you know me then you know I'm very honest and blunt! He LOVED that in me...thankfully! I would ask him why, why did he do the things he did? Why would he spend time with the people he did if he new that all they wanted was for him to buy them things and pay the bill.He wasn't dumb by any means and he just told me he didn't care. If you really sat and talked to him you'd know that all he wanted was someone to love and he was a truly caring man that really would do anything for anyone. I'm sorry his life was cut short. When I found out that Brent I were going to have a baby I had told him and he did the funniest thing. He went to the Kroger's behind the restaurant and bought about $200 worth of groceries and brought them to me in the restaurant. He said the baby needed to eat! I want to add he must have bought about 10 jars of pickles too! He was always wanting to do for me and I would have to say NO! and explain that I didn't need him to do for me that others needed him to do for them. I would still have my afternoon conversations with him and sometimes not so nice ones when I was angry about the stupid stuff that he'd do. Brent and I and Memphis moved away about 3 1/2 years ago and we still stayed in touch through cards. I sent him a Christmas card every year and he did the same. This was huge by the way because he is so not the type of person to do this. He always wrote such great letters in the card to us updating how he was doing...whether I approved or not! Two years ago he wrote and told us that he had quit drinking cold turkey. I was a little un-believing at first but after I spoke with some old Co-workers of mine they as well said that he had quit. They also said that he looked amazingly great! He died just recently and they said that they thought it was a blood clot. Our friend Art found him on his couch. His funeral was yesterday...at 3pm. I watched the clock yesterday and waited for three o'clock. I felt a little strange and just kept thinking of all of our many talks. I was so excited that this man was getting his life together and now it was cut short. His birthday is Nov. 11th. I had just bought him his birthday card that I of course send to him every year...still! He also once told me that I was the only person that ever remembered his birthday that is besides his folks. So even though we moved I just couldn't stop remembering.So I didn't feel much like doing the "fill in the blank" blog hop theme this week. Actually it's not something that I even remotely would want to do even if I wasn't sad today. I want to treasure what God has given me right here and now! An incredible husband, great children, a wonderful family and amazing friends and another day and with forgiveness for my sins. Also, God has given me a chance to know this man...David Norwood! I had his phone number and was thinking about him the other day. I would've called him if I had the time, I could've called him if I made the time, I should've called him now I can't!

You just found out you have one week to live. The first person you call is _________________ and say __________________. Immediately after hanging up the phone, you leave the doctors office and before heading home you go to _________________ so you can ____________________.

You gather your family at home that night and say _______________________ then all of you together _____________________.

You book a three day trip to three different places because you've always wanted to _________________, _________________ and _________________. On the way back from your trip you stop off at ________________________ to _________________ because you've been meaning to for a long time.

For two more days you spend your time reading _________________, writing _____________, and _______________________. You make sure you _________________, _________________ and _________________... three things you know you should have taken care of but have been putting off.

The final day is too personal to write about but you wonder to yourself: why did I have to get a death notice before I finally did all those things this week?

The reason I'll probably keeping putting off all those things is ___________________________ but __________________________.


Special thanks to Shoplet.com-Purell Hand Sanitizers for sponsoring this blog hop.