{"id":679,"date":"2013-02-21T17:01:42","date_gmt":"2013-02-21T17:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kandynolesstevens.com\/?p=679"},"modified":"2013-02-21T17:01:42","modified_gmt":"2013-02-21T17:01:42","slug":"just-the-other-night-at-the-hometown-football-game-the-last-reeds-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/?p=679","title":{"rendered":"Just the other night at the hometown football game . . . the last Reed\u2019s Run"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"lakeview<\/a><\/p>\n

The Garth Brooks song, \u201cUnanswered Prayers\u201d has always been a perennial favorite of mine.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t hit me until the night before the last Reed\u2019s Run that I was living out a line of the song at a Lakeview football game.\u00a0 Different from the lyrics, it wasn\u2019t a long-lost love with whom I reconnected that evening.\u00a0 I am sure if anyone paid attention to what happened on the sidelines, there would have been rumors flying in the small towns that night.<\/p>\n

It really all unfolded much earlier.\u00a0 About two years ago, I found my high school best friend on the internet.\u00a0 We connected very briefly through an email and later on Facebook.\u00a0 Then one day, I started noticing all the posts of remembrance.\u00a0 I knew my friend Matt had only one son (and several stepchildren).\u00a0 I literally shook as my hands did a quick Google search.\u00a0 When my husband found me crumpled on the floor sobbing a little while later, he knew something was terribly wrong.\u00a0 My worst fears regarding those messages were confirmed when I found the obituary of one sweet, Big A.<\/p>\n

I cried.\u00a0 I felt crushed in spirit.\u00a0 \u201cOh, dear Lord, NO!\u201d I cried out over and over. How could this be?\u00a0 Why was this cup not passed from not only my son, but my friend\u2019s son as well?\u00a0 I just didn\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n

I wanted our bond to be shared memories of the past \u2013 the glory years so to say \u2013 but not THIS!\u00a0 Not a shared bond of grief and loss and of despair and heartbreak.<\/p>\n

I did the only thing I could. I reached out electronically and shared about Reed.\u00a0 In the end, I told of Reed\u2019s Run and asked if we could remember Alex at our final run.\u00a0 I was expecting an affirmative response because I know that lingering fear (of no one remembering their child) all grieving parents share.\u00a0 What I didn\u2019t expect was the news that my high school best buddy and his wife were going to come and run the last run.<\/p>\n

Back to that football game. When I received the text message that they had arrived, I bolted out of my seat to greet them.\u00a0 I ran and literally jumped into Matthew\u2019s arms. What I haven\u2019t shared previously is we hadn\u2019t seen each other in twenty-three years.\u00a0 It was a wonderful (and long over-due) embrace.<\/p>\n

My heart leapt with joy at finally being in arms reach of him, and my heart soared to finally meet his beautiful bride.\u00a0 We watched the game and cheered on one number 74.\u00a0 Since 74\u2019s fan section was huge, we had three cars in convoy on the way home.\u00a0 I rode with Matt & Kimberly, and we shared the stories of our boys.<\/p>\n

Sadly, neither of us ever had the opportunity to meet the other\u2019s child.\u00a0 Back at home, we sat in the rental car, talked and cried, and cried and talked.\u00a0 With each story they told of one amazing young man, I began to feel like I was being handed the equivalent of a newborn baby swaddled in love and care of sweet memories.<\/p>\n

In high school our heartstrings were tied as two kids who loved to laugh and who loved a good adventure, especially in historic Pensacola.\u00a0 But now on a crisp Minnesota fall night, we were inexplicably bound by the loss that no parents should ever have to feel.<\/p>\n

However it wasn\u2019t unanswered prayers like that old song, it was the unshakeable faith of two dear friends that our children\u2019s deaths were not in vain.\u00a0 It was the prayers that we prayed during their lives that sustained us in their deaths.\u00a0 It was the same faith that compels both families to give back in the way that would be most honoring to each boy.<\/p>\n

But the biggest bond each family shared was the sustaining power of prayer, amazing love, and extravagant grace that over the years and across the miles both of us were\u00a0held right in the palm of God\u2019s hand.\u00a0 It is the confidence of knowing that neither family said good-bye, because someday I am going to get to meet that sweet boy and Matthew\u2019s going to meet mine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Garth Brooks song, \u201cUnanswered Prayers\u201d has always been a perennial favorite of mine.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t hit me until the night before the last Reed\u2019s Run that I was living out a line of the song at a Lakeview football game.\u00a0 Different from the lyrics, it wasn\u2019t a long-lost love with whom I reconnected that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[29,133,194,195,200,240,265,274,289,294,295,344,379,412,472,639],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}