the one where Landon is gone
Last night around 9 PM or so, my facebook notifications were going wild on my iPhone. Every couple of seconds I would get a message saying "so-n-so" liked this picture. So, I logged in to see what picture? A picture I took back in 2008 was being liked by many people and it worried me. This had happened before and it's usually not good news when it does. It wasn't this time either. Landon Ehlers, Trina and Gordon's oldest and only son, was dead. Everyone was getting the news and we are all just stunned and sad.
SHOCKED
And we are just friends, acquaintances, distant family member. Can you imagine what his immediate family must feel? If they even can feel at this moment? His mom and dad who raised him. Who just saw him recently and hugged his neck. Whispered they loved him. What about his sister? The one and only mate who knew what it was like to be in that family and who played with him. Who knew him inside and out. What about his crazy cousins that raised hell with him at family gatherings, shot guns with him, laughed with him, loved him.
My heart hurts for the entire Ehlers and Heinrich Families. HURTS. I can hardly get anything done. I just want to grab them all and hug them. Hug them hard. And then I start to feel guilty because HELLO! I'm just a photographer that took a picture of him and this isn't about me. It's about them. What can we do? What can we possibly do?
We try to understand. We try to put ourselves in the situation and wonder why? We want to understand? But how can you understand what is going on in someone's life? In their heart? Especially if they keep a part of them private. We all do. We all have secrets and thoughts we don't share with everyone. How can we help someone when we don't know? How can we mean the words "Hi. How are you?", when we say them on the run, in a hurry. Does anyone really take the time to find out how someone else is?
You need to look deep into your kid's eyes, your friend's eyes, your family's, and you need to listen and let them know that all this crap we live with down here, the jobs, the work, the stress, the money, the homes, the clothes, the cars, the thoughts...NONE OF THAT MATTERS. We all struggle and hurt the same. And we are all a part of the Body of Christ. We need to cleave together as one and lift up the parts that are hurting. Lift up the Heinrich and Ehlers family in our thoughts, our prayers, our actions.
Love does,
Kristin
