Rebuild Beautiful Speach

On behalf of my family I want to give our heart felt thanks to Rebuild beautiful and the city of Covington for this meaningful event in honor of our loved ones we’ve lost. Thanks for walking/ running with us today as we remember Buster, Andrea, Matilda and Elouse. 

I was thinking of them as I ran today.  If Buster and Lou were here they would have run side by side the whole race egging each other on and joking around. They would have been silly yet determined. Tilly probably would have been encouraging one of her younger sisters to keep going or helping push one of her younger brothers along. And if your lucky enough to have ran by her and caught her eye she would have smiled at you. If Andrea were here she would have chatted and laughed and ran and never seemed out of breath and she would have looked absolutely lovely because she always did. Oh how we miss them! Thank you for remembering them today. 

Since that dreadful day over five months ago- We have been sustained by the love and generosity of others as well as by our belief that Buster, Tilly, Lou, and Andrea  live on in a better place with the very God who created them where they are free from all sorrows and pain. These two things have brought us great comfort. 

Our community has brought us so much comfort and we feel that today too. What a beautiful thing it is to gather as a community with a common goal and unified desires. The communities in our life are fine and nice on good days, but essential and life saving on the bad days. Community events like this wake us up to a sense of our duty to each other. igniting in us a greater desire to be stewards and caretakers of each other, and of our neighbors on the road, in the stores, on the football fields and elsewhere.  

I feel a little today like I did at the candle light vigil- a strength from knowing people care even if they don’t know us. That people want to help in whatever way they can. we are not the only ones in this audience who have lost a child or a parent, a spouse or a loved one and we won’t be the last.  I've Said this before and I’ll say it again. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone but I do wish the love we’ve felt on everyone. 

Now, I hope you’ll indulge me as I get a little personal with you for a moment.  I wasn’t sure if i should speak today because- I don’t feel quite as strong as I did the last time I spoke publicly which was at a press conference just a few days after the crash.  Surrounding the crash my husband and i felt wrapped in the arms of love. Carried. Sustained. Strengthened. This was precisely the vibe we were told that we gave off at the press conference. 

Here I am five months later and I’m here to say- I don’t feel strong anymore. I feel sad, and wrecked, and sometimes downright hopeless. I choose to continue in my beliefs even though I have unanswered questions that bring me to tears and anger sometimes. I share this with you in an effort to show that I believe it’s just as brave and noble to show up and speak when your not feeling strong as it is when you are. That you don’t always have to smile and put on a good face when times are tough. That people are suffering all around us and sometimes just need to have someone sit in that space with them without throwing a positivity band aid on it. 

And hopefully in the end as ae allow for thus space that seems to have no light or hope, we can find that hope and light in the connection of the person sitting there in the dark with us. And eventually be able to walk out hand in hand toward that light. Thanks for letting me be real today.   And thanks for sitting with us in this space as we navigate this significant loss. I hope we can show up for others as others have so lovingly showed up for us. 

News Links:

https://www.fox13seattle.com/news/renton-crash-memorial-4k-walk-run