27 Minutes

For the last hour I have been battling a clogged drain in my kitchen sink.  It occurred after I decided to throw some old food down the garbage disposal and it was absolutely disgusting. Imagine a double sink full of remnants of spaghetti, chicken and dumplings and vegetable beef soup. It was stinky and greasy and I was so thankful that this was the worse thing I had to deal with this morning that I started crying.

Like most people I spent many hours in front of the television after the senseless slaughter of the children and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown CT.  The day was made even more tragic after hearing of 22 school children stabbed in China and a police officer killed in Memphis, TN.  When I finally fell asleep last night is was with a heavy heart.

This morning my phone woke me up with an alert that my sister had made a post on Facebook.  I sleepily looked at the posting which was about a Washington County deputy that had been shot and killed.

I was out of bed in a flash, immediately calling my old friend Paul. Paul and I met when we took a written test for Jefferson County Sheriff's Office 30 years ago and immediately became friends.  We were hired the same day, went through the police academy together, worked together for many years and have remained friends to this day.  We have shared marriages, deaths, our children's achievements, divorces, heartache, joy...just about everything you could share with a friend.  Paul has been a deputy in Washington County for many years and I immediately fell on my knees praying he was alright.

For 27 minutes I called, sent text messages, called mutual friends asking if they knew anything, and posted on his Facebook page.  For 27 minutes I didn't receive any response. For 27 minutes I thought a dear friend was dead.

I was relieved to hear the deputy who lost his life was not Paul, but my heart still aches for the family and friends of the deputy who was shot, because they will not know the relief I found.

So I'll happily work on my clogged sink and I'll give thanks that it is the worse thing I'll have to deal with today, because there's a lot of broken hearts and shattered dreams in this country today and I realise how blessed my family is to have gotten good news this morning.