april 30th

I was at Target shopping as usual, and was ready to check out, I was next in line and for some reason I got out of line and started looking again. So the store was about to close and I finally checked out at 9:55.  On my way home there were a ton of fire trucks, cop cars, and ambulances on 30.  I pulled on to randolph and they just kept passing me so I figured something bad was going on. As I got closer to home I saw a sea of blue, red and white lights, and what looked like a huge wreck. I got detoured and headed home, didnt think a whole lot of it just a bad wreak.  The next morning I got up to feed the baby and it was on the chicago news, and then the names of those in the wreak came across the screen Stephen Hough and Amy Bartlemey, I kept telling myself that cant be Stephen, there is no way that can be Stephen and his girlfriend. I signed onto myspace and looked at his page and saw her age and it said Amy B. I was hoping and praying that it wasnt them.  I waited and called my mom to see if she had heard anything from my dad, she hadnt but called him and then came the bad news it was Steve and Amy that died, hit by a drunk illegal immigrant.  

It really shook me up, I wasnt close with them by any means, just had met them a few times, but I was really, really upset about it. I couldnt believe it, he was really a great guy!  My dad was hit really hard, and I know that it killed him inside, I hurt for him. He was pretty close with him, and had known him since he was in high school.  He was just short of a month from graduating from college, he was on the right path, just quit drinking, was going to graduate, and was going to propose to Amy.  And just like that some guy ends it all.  It really affected me more than I thought that it would, and I couldnt even go to the funeral.  Every time I thought about it I broke into tears.  

I think what hit me the hardest was that the accident happened at 10:10, which would have put me right there when it happened.  I kept thinking that it could have been me, what if it was me.