Sept. 24, 2010
Our weekend was fun-filled, sort of. On Friday JayDee had a meeting up on campus so the rest of us just tagged along. I got the kids out of school a little early and we headed up to Logan. After dropping dad off at his meeting we went to bide our time at the famed Willow Park Zoo. Now if you've been to this zoo you will know why it is famed. If you haven't well. . .just check out these pictures and you will wish you had come.
All of these pictures were taken by my children (except for the pictures of the children)
Yep, pretty impressive wildlife. And yes, these are the most exciting animals in the "zoo."
Feeding the ducks
Hey, these ducks bite!
Definitely the most exciting creature there. . .the elusive and rare tree monkey.
After our trip to the zoo we picked Dad up and went to dinner and then dessert at Aggie Ice Cream! We had a great day together.
Sept 26, 2010
On Sunday we were back up in Logan to be with JayDee's family to commemorate the 5 year anniversary of losing JayDee's brother Justin in the USU van rollover crash. Some of you may remember it. It's a day we will obviously never forget. I thought I would take the opportunity here to recall the events we can't forget.
Sept 26, 2005 - It was a Monday. JayDee and I were, at the time, living with my dad to help him through a difficult time. I had made beef enchiladas for dinner and we had just finished eating and were visiting with my sister around the kitchen table when JayDee got a call from his sister-in-law Jill. She didn't have much to say to us, she was actually calling to see if we had any information about Justin. Since she was the first person to call us we knew nothing. We had no idea that anything was wrong. She told JayDee that she didn't know anything for sure but she thought that Justin might have been in a car accident. She said that her husband (JayDee's brother) Jeff had gone over to Justin's house to ask Justin's wife Connie if she knew anything. Cache Valley is a pretty tight community, and for a family that has been around since the valley was settled by the pioneers, the Gunnells know a lot of people. Someone had contacted Jeff and told him that Justin had been on a field trip with other students in his program at USU and they had heard from a police scanner that there had been an accident. Did Jeff know anything? Again, he knew nothing and instead of just waiting around he decided he's just go straight to the source, Connie. It's a nerve wracking thing to just sit around and wait so in her agitation Jill called us, thus spreading the agitation our way. JayDee got off the phone with Jill with an understanding that she would let us know when she heard anything. I can remember vividly the look on JayDee's face as he talked to Jill and the feeling in the room that changed almost immediately.
Well, JayDee couldn't just sit and wait either and he told me he needed to be in Logan. I told him that we didn't know anything for sure and all he said was "It doesn't matter if things turn out really bad or not, but if Justin was in an accident I need to be there." So I grabbed a few things for our then baby Hannah and literally ran out the door. My sister Shanna said she would take care of our other kids and not to worry about them. Even if we decided we needed to stay in Logan she would take the next day off work to watch our kids. Shanna, if you're reading this, that one act meant the world to us that day. We were almost on the freeway when JayDee and I thought of his sister Jana who works in Salt Lake. We thought she probably hadn't heard anything and that she would be flaming mad if she was left out so we called her at work. We were right, she knew nothing and begged us to come back to meet her at her apartment in Kaysville. The waiting was excruciating. During our wait no one called us so we still had no news. Finally, Jana pulled in and was in tears. She got in the car and we said maybe things would be fine, that's when we found out for sure, she said he was gone. Jeff had called her while she was driving home. It was awful. The best feeling I could come up with to describe it would be empty. We drove in almost complete silence the entire way, the only time we really talked was when people called us. Jeff called us to tell us everyone was meeting at Jen's (JayDee's sister) house, Shanna called to get an update, and saying the words that Justin had died was unbelievable. I remember everything along our way to be just a blur and maybe I remember that because my sight was obscured by silent tears.
As we came into the valley JayDee insisted we go to Connie and Justin's house to see how Connie was. Connie and Justin had been married almost 2 years. They had just bought a house in Wellsville. She was only 21 years old. Well I'm sure you can imagine how she was. She was blank. We walked in to find her sitting on her couch, eyes swollen, red and crying, her hands clasped tightly together and her face blank. She was completely in shock. Jeff had left by that time but he had been there when the state troopers had come to deliver the news to Connie. Her parents were with her when we got there. We just sat with her and grieved together. That was hard.
What was more hard was getting to Jen's house to find JayDee's mother. I was really glad that my two little ones were home with Shanna. It is torture to watch a mother grieve the loss of a child. We spent probably three hours talking, remembering and sharing our love for one another. There were so many questions and no one really had any answers. The only things we knew for sure was that Justin was dead along with 8 other people that were in the van with him. 9 out of 11 people died that day. When we all disbanded we took JayDee's dad back to his house in Portage. At this time it was almost midnight and we would passing Tremonton on our way home. The little information we had included the fact that the accident happened 7 miles outside of Tremonton. In his grieved state, JayDee started to look for the crash site. We stopped at every set of significant skid marks on the road. I finally talked JayDee out of continuing to look by telling him that with casualties that high we would know immediately if we came upon the site. It turned out that they did crash 7 miles outside of Tremonton but it was on I-84 not on I-15, where we had been looking.
It was October 1, 2005 when we laid Justin to rest. It was a remarkable day. I watched these people (JayDee's family) who I had grieved with for days turn into comforters for others. Their strength was amazing. We spent hours upon hours greeting those who had come to pay their respects. And remember when I said the Gunnells know a lot of people, well so do the Israelsens (that's Connie's family). I have never seen so many people at a viewing/funeral in all my life.
Following the service, we came out of the chapel to find this. Justin's friends arranged for a John Deere tractor to "take" him to the cemetery. It was the greatest tribute they could have made. Justin was a cowboy through and through and he was a John Deere man. No other tractor could ever measure up. I rode next to the casket with JayDee and cried, as we drove down the streets of Wellsville (JayDee's hometown and Justin's home at the time of the accident) people were standing outside their homes with their hands over their hearts, some held little tractors and at other houses there were no people but tractors put out front along the road.
I love this picture. JayDee, John (Justin's best friend) and Jeff watching over Justin. They barely moved from this spot during the graveside service.
This picture is one of those hard ones to take. No one knew whether to smile or not. Connie's face pretty much shows how we all were feeling. She's second from the right.
It's crazy to think that all this happened. You never think it's going to be you. This however turned out to be one of the most spiritual experiences for JayDee and I, and probably his whole family as well. The power of the gospel, the power of the Holy Ghost to heal and comfort, the unifying power of eternal families, are incredible aftermaths of an event like this. It's also amazing to know now that life goes on. It's funny because you know it will at the time but at the same time you don't think it will, but it really does and it's okay. It's been 5 years!
On Sunday we met at the cemetery for the annual decorating of Justin's grave. Grandma Gunnell never forgets this day, memorial day, or any holiday really. She is there with a smile on her face and a prayer in her heart for the son she lost. She brings things she knows Justin loved and this day we remembered him.
It's been 5 years and before we know it it will be 10 years then 20. Time marches on and all we can do is make the most of it, live the best lives we can so that we can earn our place in Heaven with all our family. We miss you Justin. We love you and in a blink of your eye we'll see you again.
