The Holiday Blues

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Marcus: I blogged in November, I have since returned to the US from Nicaragua, celebrated my sister's wedding and graduated from Vanderbilt University. Some of the other events since my return have been less joyful.

It’s Christmas Day, but I don’t feel very happy. I’m in Gatlinburg TN staying with my family in a rustic cabin up on the side of a mountain. Several of my uncles and aunts and their children gather here each year—we have a big holiday celebration replete with gift giving, massive dinners and a family thanksgiving service where we pray for one another and each year a different family member takes a turn speaking to the fifty or so others. A few of my cousins are missing this year, they had to be with other family members elsewhere and It doesn’t quite feel the same.

I also found out Saturday that one of my closest friends Gabriel Rice died in a plane crash just outside of Bishop California. Because of the circumstances of the accident it took some time for the information to get back to his family and from them to me. I’ve taken on the responsibility of calling and informing our mutual friends of his death a task that has left me with a feeling of nausea that I can’t seem to shake.

Gabe was a great pilot he had flown over five thousand hours in Alaska and was one of the bravest and most compassionate people I have ever met. His death has left me in a state of shock I can only seem to distract my mind from this horrible reality for a few brief seconds, before feelings of loneliness come flooding back.

Gabe was in my wedding five years ago this is what I wrote about him in the wedding program.

Gabriel Rice, Friend of the Groom
Gabe and I meet at Christian Life College in 1997 and after meeting became fast friends. It was great to have met someone that had just as much enthusiasm as I did about going and seeing the world. I didn’t get much homework done that semester, but Gabe and I sure did see the West Coast of the United States. We would leave on Friday every weekend and show back up for class Monday morning. We drove up and down the California coast sleeping on the beach and in my Honda Civic. We drove to Seattle going up on Friday and coming back on Sunday a pretty ambitious trip considering it was about 12 hours each way. We later backpacked together around Europe and made memories that bind us together forever.