That "One Day" In Your Life.

That was the day I knew it wasn't going to good. The rest of my life is was forever changed in an instant.

Do you remember that day? Good? Bad? One day you may have woke up and realized today was the day your life was going to change. Or maybe an event that day decided it for you? Maybe someone did or said something to you that forever decided your direction? We all have that day/event/encounter. When that day came, what happened? A loss of a family member or friend. Meeting someone you would fall in love with, or maybe as simple as getting that job you had always dreamed of. Destiny is a strange bedfellow. Something great can change your life for the better, only to have it kill you later on in life. My Brother Craig is a perfect example. In 1977 we moved to Hudsonville. The neighbors, who's kids became our friends, had snowmobiles and motorcycles. Craig loved his life, because on that day, he became happy. He loved riding dirt bikes, snowmobiles and cars. We moved again two years later, and Craig would have so much ripped away from him. He still has his love for all of those things, but once again, we had them taken away from us.

We would move again in 1980, again losing the friends we had made, because, well.....we had no choice. My Father only cared about moving up the ladder with Meijer, so when an opportunity came up, he would take it. My brother made new friends who were into muscle cars, and he thrived. But the seed of what would eventually kill him, was sitting dormant. Later in life he would talk about how he got into motorsports while living in Hudsonville to people he would see at my parents grocery store, that my Father bought after he retired in 1987, and he worked at. As he got older, he drank. More and more. To keep this story from getting any longer, I'll cut to the chase. He missed Hudsonville. And everything he did in his life was always hindered by the fact that he would never get 1978 back. It was his demon. He would tell me on many occasions that he resented my parents for making us move away. 

The day I took him to the hospital, he knew he was never coming home. He was so sick. He told me he was scared. I was scared too. But I was sad, and I was pissed off. I didn't know how sick he was from alcoholism. I had only moved back to the area after being gone for nearly six years. My sister knew he was sick. My parents knew he was sick. His friends knew he was sick. They did NOTHING! 

He was dead not even a week later. Alone in an ICU bed. Craig never got back to that day that he loved, or the town that made it possible. He drank himself to death, trying to get back to 1978.

This was the day I knew, things were never going to be ok. That day, my life changed. It took a couple of more years, but it all came out. The hatred and pain I felt that day? I still carry it with me. The anger and betrayal from my parents, my sister and her kids, will always be a scar on my soul. I'd like to think that Karma has a way of getting it's way in the end, but I'll never know. 

I wonder when they had that "One Day" that made them who they are?