death

i haven’t cried in a long time, but yesterday was an exception.

i received a telephone call from my mom, while tailgating before the UF vs. Troy football game.

she asked me where i was and what i was doing, and for a second i thought the family might have surprized me with a visit–but when there was a long pause on the other end of the line, i knew something was wrong.

saturday night, a neighbor and friend–Mr. Layson–was killed in a car accident. apparently, he was driving with a friend back from watching a football game. when he went to change the music on his iPod, he lost control of the vehicle and it flipped a few times before hitting a pole. He friend survived, but Mr. Layson did not.

I used to babysit for his family. He just had a baby in february, and his son Zed and Daughter Caroline are both younger than 8.

i’ve experienced death before, but never so suddenly. death is different when you feel that it’s expected, or have time to prepare for it.

when i heard this, i began to shaking and crying… i couldn’t believe what had happened.

just a few days before i had been talking about him with one of his former students. Mr. Layson taught history at Lake Highland Prep, a private school in Winter Park. I often met students from there who had been in his history class. Everyone who knew him loved him.

Mr. Layson was the FCA sponsor at Lake Highland, and since I worked with FCA at Winter Park, he would often talk to me about ideas or upcoming events and hopes he had for his FCA group. Every time I was over to babysit his kids, Mr. Layson would ask me how things were going with FCA (and also about my college application to UF, where he went to school).

nothing about death is natural. death is a product of sin–it is separation from everything that is life–separation from Christ. Donald Miller describes this idea so beautifully in Searching For God Knows What…

it is a comfort to know now that Mr. Layson is enjoying eternity, but heartwrenching to think that his family is for the time, separated from him physically.

thanks to all my friends who helped comfort me yesterday, I really appreciated it. if you all could please keep your family in your prayers, it would be greatly appreciated.