My son, Kyle, and his dear friend, Prentice, died in a car accident on March 31, 2010. Prentice was 19, Kyle was three months from his 17th birthday. Prentice lived across the street with his mom and his sister; his house was an extension of Kyle's bedroom, his family an extension of Kyle's family. Next Sunday, March 27, 2011, we will unveil Kyle's headstone with a brief ceremony and gathering of friends and family to mark the first anniversary of the worst day of our lives. Four days later, on the actual anniversary of the accident, I will board an airplane in San Francisco with 14 of Kyle's good friends from Berkeley High: 12 students and a teacher from CAS, the small school at Berkeley High that Kyle loved so much, and a 13th student who is now an honorary member of the CAS family. We will travel together to Israel and Palestine for 11 days over Spring Break, to take the Trip That Kyle Never Got To Take. How I got from March 31, 2010 to March 31, 2011, I can barely comprehend.
I'm planning to keep a blog during the trip, and will try to fill in some of the pieces along the way. For now, I'll begin by saying that I couldn't have survived this year without so many of you. Each day I felt as though I might just slip away, drift off into no where, and each day, someone pulled me back. Thanks.
Here are some of us that are going on the trip:
Here is who didn't make it:
Here are some of us that are going on the trip:
From Paula Keener:
ReplyDeleteAND....Kyle did make it on the trip. he is on the way to NY with each of you....crossing the Atlantic on the plane with each of you..walking every step of the way through the next not only through the next 11 days...........he is and always will be in our hearts as we travel on a very special journey that none of us would have ever traveled in our lives without him...he is there for us in all of our hearts...in all of our minds, in all of our souls..at that special place where you are going tomorrow...NY...Blessed Lands...and BEYOND..all you have to do is be really quiet and listen.....I pray for each one of you to feel Kyle's presence in that special place in yourselves...I pray for your safe arrival and lovely, very blessed celebration, YES, celebration of KYLE's life with the global world in whatever way you choose to do so.........and return back home....if only each of us were so "explicitly blessed..." just look at the focus and determination in Kyle's eyes in the first image posted in this blog...he so had something to carry forward much bigger than us.....much stronger than us.....and we are to "live through the questions he brought to our lives" to make us stronger in the journey his precious life has challenged us to travel.......... and you all are carrying out collective love, dedication, commitments to community, blessed acts....all the things that are in Kyle's sweet boys eyes.....don't ever forget that....
Love,
Paula