Grandma's House

I'm gonna go all grandmotherly on you here. If you don't read any other posts here today, please read this one. I wasn't going to write it, but something tells me someone needs to read it. Perhaps it is you. Warning: Explicit Details Not Suitable For Small Children. I wrote a few days ago (scroll down) about a fatal car wreck. We are supposed to attend a funeral this afternoon for a dear man who died a horrific death. I want you to know why. Doug was a generous man, he'd barter with anyone if they needed something. But he had a problem. Doug liked to drink. A lot. At the city's Buffalo Days celebration, he spent a good deal of the time in the bar on the square. He was drunk when he was driving his pickup truck home that afternoon, carrying his fiancee, his best friend's son, and his own 14 year old son. He lost control of the truck on a curve, went into the ditch, then over-corrected and hit two other cars, one of them head-on. The people in the car he side-swiped just got cuts and bruises. The woman in the car he hit head-on (also a friend of ours) had her pelvis broken in two places. She has small children at home to care for, when she gets out of the hospital. As for the pickup truck, his fiancee was killed instantly. His best friend's son was bleeding from his ears and eyes; he is on life-support and not expected to progress past vegetable status. Doug's son is getting out of the hospital later this morning. He says he doesn't remember the wreck; for now this is a good thing. He will eventually remember. And Doug? Doug was trapped in the truck. He was seriously injured. Then the truck caught on fire. The first officer on the scene said Doug was begging her to shoot him, please. She left as soon as the fire department got there. He was screaming for someone to kill him, to cut his legs off and get him out, anything. There was nothing they could do. Doug burned alive in that truck that afternoon. The only part of his body that didn't burn was the soles of his feet. It is his funeral we will be attending. Please think about this before you get behind the wheel. Whether you've been drinking or not, someone probably has been. Young Jesse will have to live with what happened for the rest of his life, plus he will probably have to deal with survivor's guilt. That's something no one should have to do. Don't let alcohol ruin your life or the lives of your friends.