Day never forgotten.... January 9, 2008 morning Carlsbad, NM. Great start to the day! Dara and my grandchildren came up from Roswell to visit unexpectedly. Great day!! Off to work; home at 3pm to see my babies and daughter-in-law. Evening, Kelly and Dara cooked dinner while I played and joked that Alec (being goofy spinning on his back on the kitchen floor) acts so much like his daddy. Standing visiting in kitchen; a feeling of absolute weightlessness and dizziness goes through my body. It lasts a maximum of 5 seconds and is done) Previous time this occurred it lasted 45 minutes. Found out later Christopher was in a “situation” with an IED around his boot during this time). Late evening off to bed. Phone call from Dara’s Dad. Got up to get her. Got back in bed mumbling “Please don’t let it be Christopher, Lord”. Kelly: “What did you say?” Me (not realizing I said anything out loud) : “Dara’s dad wouldn’t normally call this late”. Dara came into our bedroom “Someone called my dad asking to speak with me. He told the caller I was with you in Carlsbad. Dad insisted on knowledge of reason for the call before he called me. Chris has been injured; was what the man on the phone line from Germany said. Out of bed. Phone calls start until 2am. First, attempted to call soldier back that spoke with Dara’s dad. He had “no information and everyone in meetings at this time”. Argued related to phone call received earlier but no more information would be given. Second, my brother-in-law was called (a doctor in Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany). He got out of bed and went to the hospital to check if Christopher was being flown in with his injury. Third, call to loved ones to begin praying for his injury to be minor. Son-in-law recommends calling the Red Cross for information. Dara calls Red Cross and is transferred around for multiple minutes while Kelly and I stare at her on the phone. Dara finally transferred to a General. Dara falls to the ground in grief. Kelly grabs the phone and confirms our life has just changed forever. Next day, the black car arrives to confirm our son was killed. (Thankfully, the way things happened Dara was not alone at our house when it arrived. Would have been, if not for the caller the night previous, to get us up and calling. Though the information was wrong and had us thinking injury; I thank God that it occurred like this for Dara. We were all together when we got “the news”). Our son, Sgt Christopher Alan Ignatius Sanders, would not come home as we hoped. Rest in Peace Son #Neverforgotten #AlwaysLoved #SoProudtoBeYourMomma #Sinsil8
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 06:32:35 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015