Split second

Ever have one of those days when your life as you know it changes in a split second? In one week, two phones calls changed our lives forever.

March 23rd, we get a phone call from our daughter-in-law. The doctors in the ER think our son has some form of blood cancer. But they needed to do a bone marrow biopsy to confirm. Just like that. The kid that was never sick, the kid that always ate right, stayed active & was in tip top physical shape. Holy shit. How? Why? What did he ever do to deserve this?

2 days later, the bone marrow biopsy came back, 91% blasts (cancer cells), two types of leukemia. that's our boy, so competitive that he has to get not one, but two types.

Family & friends quickly rallied. Bringing meals to the hospital every day, a logo was made, t-shirts printed & sold to help our son with bills. Long lost relatives suddenly calling, sending cards, money & best wishes. Tattoos were done. Millions of tears fell. Grudges forgotten. Prayers said. Held on to hope that he didn't have cancer, just sever anemia or some nasty bug. The leukemia ribbon is orange, so our son's best friend designed his ribbon with the Bengal tiger stripes.

From day one, our son amazed the doctors, when he was admitted, his blood levels were the lowest they have ever seen from someone walking into the emergency room. Most people with that low of blood levels have their heart give out. When son said he played basketball just a couple days ago, the doctors jaws dropped to the floor.

He instantly become the favorite patient. Nurses fell in love with him & started fighting over who got to be his nurse, doctors stopped by to see the boy wonder. Rumors of his case being written in medical journals.

Our son responded very well to the aggressive chemo treatments. Very few side effects, but he did lose his hair.

He is now in remission, finishing up his chemo & anxiously wanting to get his life back.


March 25th. The second life changing phone call happened during our sons first bone marrow biopsy. A group of 10 bikers sitting at a red light were plowed into from behind by a guy driving a dump truck. Bikes exploded, on fire, bodies were run over or thrown across the road.

3 were killed instantly, another lost her life later at the hospital. Other were injured, some pretty bad, a couple were lucky with just a few scrapes & broken bones.

Bikers through out the whole state were calling their buddies to see if it was them or if they knew who was involved. The first reports didn't say if it was just a group of friends, a club or an organized public ride. Everyone was calling everyone they knew. "Are you ok?" "Do you know who it was?" "How could this happen?"

After this made national news, I even got a text from a biker buddy in Strathmore England.

How could I deal with this, while our son was just diagnosed with two types of leukemia? How would I handle this if I knew the people involved?

Finally got word on what group it was & who the victims were. I recognized a couple names & the club, but didn't know anyone personally.

The community, bikers & non-bikers became angry. Fund raisers were organized & the love & support from the non-biker world was amazing. A young boy that witnessed the accident used his allowance to buy a bandanna for the make shift memorial where the accident happened. A young boy, maybe 8 or 9, he should have never ever seen anything like this, but was so concerned about the bikers.

We need to ride back out to the accident site. it seems that we have avoided that area, where we use to ride by quite often. I've heard that a welder made a permanent memorial. & A lady took all the bandannas to make a quilt to sell to help the surviving victims.

The dump truck driver tested positive for meth. & Is being charged with manslaughter.