Day 2

Share some thing sad in your life.

In just a few days, it will be 11 years….That’s crazy to think about.  November 23, 1999, a day I will alway remember.  I was in sixth grade, way to young for something like this to happen.  A few weeks earlier, she fell and hit her head and was rushed to the hospital where she was there for 2 weeks.  She was in a medically induced coma and they tried taking her out once and she arrested. They tried again a few days later, and she arrested again, but this time she didn’t have the fight left in her.  She passed away with her parents by her side.

That next day at school I remember I found out right away.  I was putting stuff in my locker when someone a year older than me said, “I’m so sorry about Mary.”  I had no idea she had passed away, so I quickly found my friends and confirm the devastating news.  I spent most of the day in the nurse’s office with my friends crying and talking.  My mom came during lunch to take us to Hogan Brothers, a much needed break.  

The visitation was on Thanksgiving Day.  The line was out the door.  I was so nervous to see her.  She looked different, but I won’t get into the details!  She had a love for her dog Max and I remember her family brought him to the funeral home for the visitation.  The next day was her funeral at St. Dominic’s church, a place I had never been before and a place that will forever be connected to Mary.  Her parents asked me to read a prayer.  It was just a few sentence’s long, but I was so nervous being in front of all those people.  They told us to go slow so people could understand us, and I remember reading it so fast! Oops! 

My relationship with Mary was pretty new, but something that was definitely growing.  We sat 2 seats away from each other in band, in the clarinet section.  The day before she fell, she was complaining all during band that she had a headache, so we were devastated to hear she was in the hospital the next day.  I had spent the Friday before it all with her at the Northfield football game in Prior Lake…Something I’ll never forget.  Years later, her parents asked me to talk about her at the dedication of the softball shelter/concession, I was a freshman in high school, it was the first time I was ever in the paper…The front section of sports page and I was crying.  Later, my freshman year of college, I went and got a tattoo of the words live, laugh love on my back.  The saying that is on Mary’s plaque on the softball shelter.  

Sorry this is kind of scattered, but I had never really written about it.  I was young and it’s been 11 years, I had forgotten some of these details until now.  I can’t believe it’ll be 11 years in 4 days…Live Well. Laugh Often. Love Much.

Mary Elizabeth Stanton June 6, 1988-November 23, 1999.