Nearly three weeks ago, our world was changed forever.
My sister Jen and her husband Lee left on a quick trip to pick up a prescription at a pharmacy less than a mile and a half from their house.
They never made it.
We aren't absolutely sure of the details that led to the accident, so I'm not comfortable sharing anything more than what we know to be fact at this point: another truck crossed the center line, came into their lane and hit them.
Both Jen and Lee were rushed by ambulance to the hospital.
Lee didn't survive the accident.
Jen survived but was broken basically from head to toe.
The hospital staff here knew they weren't equipped to provide the care Jen really needed, so she was immediately flown to Little Rock to a Level I trauma center.
She remained sedated for the next 10 days as she underwent surgery on her leg and arm and to allow time for her other injuries to heal.
During that time, our family said goodbye to Lee and faced the heartbreaking task of having to tell Jen about it when she woke up.
Our girl is such a FIGHTER that the CCU staff at the hospital said they couldn't remember the last time they had a patient who remained so alert even while being heavily sedated. We, of course, weren't the least bit surprised. Our girl was in there, and she was fighting as hard as she could to come back.
In a HUGE praise, Jen ended up not needing an additional surgery that had been planned and we were able to wake her up several days sooner than we expected.
The couple of days that followed her coming out of the sedation were just as difficult as we knew they would be. But Jen survived. And we survived.
She spent another week being transitioned from critical care to step-down unit and then to a regular room on the orthopedic floor. And then yesterday, less than three weeks after her accident, Jen came home.
She's still facing a long and physically painful recovery in addition to facing the loss of her precious husband.
But she can do this. We can do this. I told her last night I'm not totally sure exactly how we will do it, but we will. One teeny tiny baby step at a time.
Our grief is overwhelming. Our hearts are absolutely broken - but our spirits aren't.
There is absolutely no doubt that the only thing Lee would want any of us to be doing right now is taking care of his precious family. And while I doubt we'll ever be as good at it as he was, we are doing just that.
The outpouring of love, support and well wishes has been overwhelming in its own right. Within minutes of the accident happening, the hospital halls were flooded with family and sweet friends who have been by Lee and Jen's sides every step of this road so far. I have never seen so many cars and so many people in one place as I did at Lee's funeral. There are friends - including many of you that we only know via social media outlets - who have heaped upon us love, support, prayers, well wishes, food, flowers, offers to help with the kids, and random acts of kindness from mowing Jen's yard to putting a new set of tires on her car. We are absolutely blown away by you and your generosity.
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Being the good southern girl that I am, I wish there was a way to send each one of you a personal thank you handwritten on monogrammed stationery. (And I'm still thinking I just may try to do that. Writing thank you notes = therapy for this girl.) But since there is a good chance that may not be possible, please understand that we have felt and cherished every kind word, prayer, and gift alike.
Our focus right now is taking care of our girl and getting her physically well so that we can face the rest of what lies ahead.
There are three incredible kiddos who are ecstatic to have their mama back home. I love those babies like they're my own (And YES. They are still babies at 16, 12 and 7.) and Crazy Aunt Jill has been doing everything I can to help fill in the gaps while Jen has been gone - but I know I don't hold a candle to her with them. There have been ballgames, beauty pageants (Crazy Aunt Jill goes pageant mom!!!) and just regular school days - and those kids have rocked it all even in the midst of their worlds being turned upside down. I will never, ever be able to express how proud I am of them. Although - I do have to say that right after the accident happened I was talking to the kids and told them that I just might move in for a while to help keep everything going ... and the looks on their faces resembled pure TERROR. Ha! Love those babies. Love their mama. Love that precious Lee and everything he is to this family.
Speaking of love - there are two other chicks I'm fortunate enough to call sisters. I am a lucky, lucky girl to have these three in my corner. Some may get caught up in the semantics of blended family-isms, but I couldn't care less. As my wise mama said last week - We don't have step hearts. We don't have step love. We don't have step heartache. This road is one I wouldn't wish on anyone. But here we are. And I'll be damned if we won't come out stronger on the other side.
So let me tell you this. All the fluff, all the junk, all the whatever aside - these girls are my sisters. I couldn't care less about the labels anyone else thinks should or shouldn't apply. We are sisters. No asteriks, no footnotes, no exceptions. Sisters. End of story.
We may argue. We may be petty at times. We may not talk every day. But I guarantee you that none of us would hesitate to drop everything for each other. Period.
{jill + blair. galveston. circa 1990-something.}
{jill + blair. fayetteville. circa 1980-something. and i kow you think that looks like tom cruise posing with us - but it's actually our handsome daddy!}
{hannah + sophie. hannah graduated! may 2012}
{the 3 shumaker girls - trouble + more trouble + most trouble. in that order. may otherwise be known as jill + hannah + blair.}
{jen + jill. halloween 2012. hayride at mom & jimmy's. lee snuck off the trailer and then jumped out of the woods at us. i think we all needed clean undies after that. ha. tears falling down my face as i caption this.}
{blair + jill + hannah. august 9, 2012. i turned 28. the dirty 30 is quickly approaching.}
{jen + squishy sophie. december 23, 2007. aunt jen loves her some wild woman. more tears.}
{wild woman + aunt hannah. mcalisters. december 23, 2012. priss walks around like she owns the joint.}
{blair + jill. october 2012. celebrating baby kale's upcoming arrival.}
{hannah + jill. aunties!}
{jen + jill. one of my favorite pictures of us.}
{sophie + aunt jen. january 1, 2011. the day lee & jen became mr. & mrs. be still my heart. we love you, lee. thank you for taking such good care of jen and the babies.}
{kennedy + blair. december 2012. kale was almost here!}
{sophie + kennedy. march 30, 2013. one week after the accident. flowers for taylor & adison as they competed in the miss new boston pageant. taylor - 1st runner up Miss New Boston and most photogenic. adison - Junior Miss New Boston 2013 and most photogenic. not the LEAST bit shocked. they got it from their momma.}
Some days I worry that I'm depriving Sophie of a big part of life because she is an only child. Then I look at she and Kennedy together. And I see sisters.
Love.
























