We sort of split up after graduation. Thuvan and Sarah A. went to Auburn and lived together, me and Becca went to UAB and lived together, while Sarah C. stayed in Birmingham to work. We were still friends...we spent an amazing summer together before going off to college. We spent long weekends together and all of Christmas break. It was like old times.
Unfortunately, that year (2007), on a weekend trip back to Birmingham, Sarah A. was in a car accident after me, Thuvan, Becca, and she were all out together. She wasn't wearing her seat belt and was thrown from the car as it flipped. I'll never forget the phone call from Thuvan early that morning in February. I thought I was going to be sick. I left my boyfriend's house to run home to our dorm to wake up Becca (no one could get her on the phone) and tell her what had happened. We cried and flipped out some more before we rushed off the UAB hospital. We found some of our friends and more and more continued to show up outside the neuro ICU. She was brain dead. She wasn't going to make it. We knew all this before we got there of course...but of course we went. We sat for what seemed like hours and hours, crying until we couldn't anymore, until we were let back in pairs to go say our goodbyes.
She was just laying in the hospital bed, beautiful as always...just a few scratches on her arms. They said her leg was broken too. Her dad and step family was there, but her mom had gotten remarried and moved to one of the Carolinas. She couldn't get on an airplane fast enough so she and her husband were on there way there by car. It wasn't long enough, the couple minutes I had to see her. I didn't say much. I couldn't with all those people around. But she knew. She knew that she was one of my very best friends and that she would always be in my heart and on my mind. I know if roles were reversed she'd be thinking the same thing. I take comfort in that. And even more comfort in that she's in Heaven and I'll see her again one day. Sometimes I imagine that Sarah and my grandmother are sitting around telling stories about me occasionally. It makes me laugh. And I know she'll greet me at Heaven's gate when I get there with a big "Leeeeiiigghh Aaaaaannnnn" how she always greeted me in a sing song voice.
The next few days were a blur. I cried a lot, looked a lot of pictures, went home to cry to my mom, told stories about old times. Then the visitation happened. It was miserable for awhile, and then we told some more stories and got to laugh. Afterward we went to eat at Olive Garden, which was always our favorite place to go eat together. It wasn't the same. We only went there a couple times after that. The next day was the funeral. There were so many people at her church that they had to have an overflow room and I'm not sure everyone even got in there. I saw so many people Sarah had touched. Her friends from church and school (both Vestavia and Auburn), teachers, family, and even the guys who did our nails all through high school!
After the funeral it was hard to get back to normal. This was only my second semester in college and I had a rough semester. Luckily I didn't fail anything, but my parent's were less than happy with my grades. I think they let it slide because of how hard it was on me. It was hard on all of us. We went to visit her grave on what would have been her 19th birthday in May. Her mom was in town and there. It was hard to see her. I know she was so upset. I can't imagine my pain magnified by soooo much more with her losing her child.
Nowadays I don't visit her grave as much as I should. I hate thinking of her dead and gone. I like to think of her alive how she used to be or up in Heaven with the angels. That makes me happy. The cemetery makes me sad...and I know Sarah doesn't want me to be sad!! She never did. I keep things she gave me and a scrapbook of some of that and her pictures. Her mom gave me back something I had given her for her 16th birthday that she had hanging in her apartment at Auburn. I keep that in a special place as well.
I'm not writing this because I want pity or to share my sob story. I just wanted to get it all out and put it all into words. It's a part of me and who I am. It's a tribute to her and a precursor to a blog to come with some of my favorite Sarah stories. So here's to you, angel! I love you. Rest in peace.
PS- All my OLD pre digital pics are in albums. I'll try to scan some in and add them later when I blog a few Sarah stories.
