Mid-Week Updates

It's been a few days since I've written, but now that I've gone back to school for the week, it's kinda hard to stay in-the-know, because I keep forgetting to text Cassidy and ask her about her brother.

SO. To recap the last few days...

The visitation was on Monday. I went to school in the morning, then drove back home after my Coms class so that I could attend that. The line for seeing the family/viewing the casket was so long, we had to weave through the chairs in the sanctuary. My dad said he'd never seen anything like it.

I met his brother, Hunter (not the same Hunter that's in the hospital). You see, Blake & Jake were adopted, so I think Hunter's their half-brother, but I'm not sure.

I met Mrs. Martha's parents, and her mother didn't want to let me go.

I hugged Blake again.

I hugged Mrs. Martha, and she said she was so grateful I was there. 

I also hugged Mr. Greg, and he just seemed...out of it.

Then I waited for my sister, and I held her hand as we walked to the casket.

I shouldn't have looked. It didn't look anything like Jake. There was so much makeup on his face, and he looked...just wrong. I'm sure they had to do a lot of reconstruction on him. They should've just had a closed-casket. But I know he's not really in that casket; he's in heaven. That's just his body.

Then we walked away from the casket and I absolutely lost it. I hugged Sarah and she told me, "DON'T YOU EVER MAKE ME DO THIS." And I promised I wouldn't. And I made her promise she wouldn't make me do that. 

I talked to a few of my friends and we shared stories. Then my friend Corey's dad got a call saying that Bailey had been released from the hospital. So Bailey's home now. (Hunter's still going to be in until at /least/ Friday, but probably longer than that. Mirana hasn't woken up yet.)

Then I drove back home.

***

On Tuesday, the funeral was at 11:00 in the morning. I didn't go. My sister and mother went, however, and my mom said it was really hard. Especially hard. I can't even imagine.

The Oak Mountain football and wrestling teams arrived in school buses. If they hadn't, there wouldn't have been any parking for anyone else; there was not an empty space in the parking lot. Which is amazing. Jake really will be missed by a ton of people.

All of the teenagers went to Zaxby's afterwards.

***

I called my mom this morning and asked about Hunter and Mirana.

Mirana had her surgery on Monday, and the surgeons reattached her spine and her pelvis. She's resting, but she's still heavily sedated. I'm hoping there's no brain damage, but my friend Jason said that she had lost oxygen at some point in time, and it might not be good.

Hunter's still not eating. He's been taking off the nutrition IV, but he just won't eat. He can eat, but he's "not hungry." It's going to hurt going through his intestines, so I suppose that's why he's not eating.

***

I'm going to go see Hunter on Friday, when I get back home from school. So hopefully everything's going to be okay.

Mirana's next surgery is scheduled for today, and then another surgery on Friday or Saturday, depending on how she does today.

Just keep these complete strangers in your prayers, please. It's going to be really rough for our youth group, to know that when we walk in, it won't be Jake and Blake keeping everybody in line. (Well, Jake keeping Blake in line.)

I'm just hoping nobody will be drastically changed by this (Blake and Hunter, especially). We need their personalities now more than anything.