3rd week of May...

Now my life starts to get busy!

The beginning of the week was full of opening the storage area for students to put things away for the summer, farewell parties for faculty that are leaving GC, and saying good-byes. Thursday the residence halls closed at 10:00 AM. It was an extremely busy day as I checked out every single room in my buildings. I finished around 5:30 PM and was ready to fall asleep then and there! Instead I took a shower and got ready to go out for dinner with the other RDs. We have a tradition of going to Hacienda (a fun local Mexican chain) for a later dinner on the day the dorms close.

Friday I had meetings and then spent time filing out end of the year reports. In the evening I went out for dinner and shopping with the Rissers. I have several weddings this summer and decided that I needed to purchase a new dress for all the festivities! I found a great brown/white patterned sleeveless dress with a jacket that will be perfect.

It was while I was out shopping in Sears for the dress that I received the phone call that one of of our students had been killed the night before in a car accident on her way home. I was very thankful that the Rissers were with me. Deanna drove my car while I began to process this huge loss. When I returned to campus I went over to the office and helped give information to write the all campus email that would inform students of her death. I then spent an hour or so calling some students and alumni that I knew were close to her and would want to know. It was a very difficult evening.

God sent one little piece of his love to me while I was doing this...I was walking around campus while I made the calls on my cell phone and when I while I was telling one alumnus about the death I was sitting on a concrete bench by the bookstore and started to cry with the person. Just as I did that a woman came riding by on a bike. It was a dear student that had graduated several years ago and currently lives in Florida. She was in town for a wedding and was riding back to her host home when she saw me. She stopped and just hugged me while I finished up the phone call. It was such a balm to my aching heart to have her hug after making so many horrible phone calls. I am confident God sent her along to meet me at just that moment.