I dont regularly talk to people about the most memorable moments of their entire lives... It doesnt randomly come up while discussing inventory reconciliation with my accountant or while ordering 8 pieces of salmon nigiri and a deep fried spicy tuna roll to share with Nate for our Thursday night Mr Samurai feast. My personal care assistants would tell you that they get to know me best mid shower or during my after lunch bathroom break. Deep shit goes on in there. Seriously. No matter how deep we go... I dont think Ive ever asked anyone in my entire life what moment in their life stands out the most. Maybe its too intimate. Maybe I dont believe Ill get the truth. Maybe I just expect to hear some absolute cliche.... Oh my wedding date was sooo magical... Maybe Im a cynic and feel that others just go through the motions and dont really dig in deep to understand where they have come from and where they are going. Maybe Im afraid that after they tell me their answer that they will ask me the same question. I have a lot of really memorable moments from my many years of living. I do. A lot of bad. A lot of good. Some down right terrible. Some magical. Some I hope I never forget and others I wish that I would just stop thinking about when I wake up in the morning. On January 6th, 2009, I had one of these moments. Unfortunately this one most resembles a bloody car crash where you see the other vehicle coming but you cant react fast enough to turn the wheel. You dont realize that you could have avoided the tragedy until its already too late. It takes 3 seconds but feels like an hour. Ive never been in a car crash but I watch a lot of movies and can safely say that Hollywood doesnt lie when it comes to this topic. Lets start over... On January 6th, 2009, I had THE MOMENT that began a series of moments that changed my life forever and has shaped who I have been and what I have done and what I want to do for myself and what I want to do for others. I had my devastating slow motion car wreck that I did in fact see coming but I wont ever be able to go back and try to avoid. I just wake up every now and then remembering the moment an At 3pm, my sister Annie called me at work and before I could say, hello, how are you, hey whats up... How far are you in Lost?..... She said... Hey Stevie Im at Northwestern in the emergency room, tell mom and tell dad. I will call you later. Love you. Bye. She always said Love you. Bye at the end of every phone call no matter the context. And then she would hang up on me and text me immediately after if she forgot anything of vital importance. This phone call and Love you. Bye on January 6th 2009 was different from the phone call six months prior where she called me to tell me she was on her way to Iowa to pick up a dog she bought on the Internet... at a truck stop... Because the dog was being delivered by a truck driver from California en route to New York. Vintage Annie. This phone call and Love you. Bye on January 6th 2009 was drastically different from the one where all she wanted was my music industry hook ups to get her free tickets to a sold out concert... In order to impress a boy that she wanted to make out with.. And oh by the way she was just released from the hospital 3 hours prior... And at the time of her phone call she was rolling down a major throughway in her electric wheelchair, in the pouring rain... about a mile away from the venue. Vintage Annie. The context that preceded this Love you. Bye. was just a little too simple and I knew something was wrong because it just wasnt an awesome enough phone call for Annie Hopkins.And then after she hung up I didnt get that text message with further clarification that would ease the worries of a big brother. I knew that this wasnt JUST a visit to the ER. I couldnt shake the feeling that she needed me to come and advocate for her in this time of need like she always did for me...but I didnt. This simple little phone call that we have had before.. A few times actually.. It triggered a series of moments, like a 1000 car pile-up that lasted for 14 days... and turned into the seconds and minutes and hours and days of conversations that I could recite to you and re-live word for word... all leading up to January 20th at about 3pm.... when she died. You would think that that is the ultimate experience, the first thing that would come to mind if someone asked Hey, Stevie whats the one moment that changed your life forever? Nope, thats not it. The answer to the question is a simple phone call from my little sister and my very best very friend. The moment I still relive in slow motion is Annies very last Love You. Bye.
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 02:44:15 +0000
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