The Unthinkable

There are things in life that I believe will truly never be understood. They aren't meant to be in this life. Maybe when the time is right, but for now all we have are questions.

I'm sure everyone is aware of the incident that has unfolded in our community yesterday January 16th, 2013. That man happens to be a great friend of mine and Scott's. He's also Scott's co-worker, the same man that Scott has lived with the last three years while he was running the road crews. We know him, we care about him, and we love him. Currently Scott and myself are in complete and utter shock, dismay, a blur. Call it what you will, but we are beside ourselves. Words could not fully describe the emotions, the hurt, the anger that we are experiencing.

To those of you who only know what is going on from what the media is telling you... Please know there is a bigger picture. Please remember no matter what happened last night, Boede Paul is human. He has a mom, a dad, brothers, sister-in-laws, nieces and nephews, and a year old son. That baby will never know his parents. Not for one moment am I justifying what has happened, but I do believe there are no bad people. There are simply good people who do bad things. Boede is one of the greatest people we have ever had the pleasure of knowing. He has been a guest in our home, a guest at our wedding, and most importantly a friend to Scott and I when we needed it. He is kind, gentle, down to earth, funny, and just an all around good person.

Have you never made a mistake in your life? Have you never had poor judgement when things got bad? Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but again, bashing a person you have never met makes you no better of a person. Instead of wasting energy on telling the world what a horrible human being he must have been, pray for his family. Pray for his baby boy. Pray for Angela and her family.

Things are only going to get worse before they get better. Both parties involved have years of healing and even more years of understanding. Why? At this point, we can ask till we are blue in the face. We will simply never know. All we know is this is happening. This is real life. And at some point, we have to deal with it. We are going to have to come to terms we will never see Boede on the Earth again. All we have are the memories of the good times. That's what we want to hold on to. Not the mess and chaos of last night. The person in that pickup truck is not the person we know and love.

I can only pray for comfort for the Paul family and for the Shultz family. I can ask God to please ease some of our pain and hurt. I know He is there, and I know He is listening. I can only hope that Boede is safe and without pain. He is free from his suffering. All I can ask for now is that Boede looks down on us and realizes how many love him and how much we miss him.

Today is hard, tomorrow will be harder and the next day will be harder than that. Pray for peace. For everyone.