The Love of My Life in QUOTIDIEN

So many raw emotions, so I will be brief:

On the evening of May 02, I received a call from my husband's phone while I was out with my daughter -celebrating my first full paycheck from the new job.

The caller's voice was unfamiliar as he set about the task of announcing to a stranger, that her husband had just collapsed from an apparent heart attack, and that things didn't look good.

AM screamed - and I began this sort of panting groan. I contacted my neighbor, who came to collect us. Twenty minutes later, another call from Dave's phone. They were just now loading him in the ambulance, and the siren sounded in the background. They'd worked on him for that long.......I knew he was gone.

Though he flatlined in the ambulance, they didn't pronounce him until they'd exhausted all avenues. 19:56.

I collapsed in the hallway on my way to see him - sucked in a breath, and this alien sound came out of me...and wouldn't stop. When I lost feeling in my hands and feet, it came again and again in waves. 'How will I live? How can I live without the love of my life?! Nononono......' I no longer cry out the words....but the echo lives on as an eternal background noise.

The memorial is set for May 14th -our 32nd wedding anniversary at Kansas City First Church of the Nazarene.

A giver by nature, David was determined to continue giving until there was nothing left.

This week, two people will receive the news that their sight will be restored. His blood vessels will be used to restore precious circulation to save a leg, an arm.....a heart. Several people will receive pieces of his bone to help heal the broken - and that man carried enough flesh to supply burn units across Kansas and Missouri.

But his heart....they couldn't take his heart. The heart attack is the official reason. Anyone who knew him, however, knew that throughout his life, he graciously gave of it until there was nothing left.

...and he took mine with him.

PSA: Become an organ donor!