I started to write this the other day

Between the blog site and facebook I have had some interesting discussions regarding life, death, and the parts in between. One thing came up recently when my friend, Cindy, had a close-call with the safety of her little grandson, CJ. He had found a way out of her house and walked around toward the backyard in the direction of the pond. His escape and the danger was thwarted by a vigilant grandma and mama but it scared the daylights out of Cindy for days! This made Cindy remember Timmy's accident and the times that followed, and she stressed that his influence remains in the front of her brain and on her heart to this day.

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This brought to mind another scary story we experienced after Timmy's death in our pool. My former spouse installed a pool alarm that would make a huge noise if some one or some thing landed in the pool and caused a wake. The security people installed window and door alarms on the pool-facing openings which would make a loud signal if they were opened when they should not be. This type of accident was not going to happen again.

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Meanwhile, there was a young father at our preschool named Jeff who had a darling son named Thanos. Jeff had asked me to babysit for a weekend when he had to go out of town for a meeting and I agreed. Justin was not happy about that situation because he had already told me once, "No substitutions!". He was afraid I was bringing Thanos in to replace his brother, as though that could ever happen. I assured him I was only being helpful and instead of putting Thanos in Justin's room in the bunk bed/futon, I put him in the first floor guest room. Proper distance from Justin's room, and from Timmy's, which was still untouched.

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My former spouse was working out in the yard or something into the late evening and was still outside when the rest of us had gone to bed. He came into the house to change into his trunks, saying he was going to rinse off and cool off before coming into the house. Forgetting all about the pool alarm, he dived into the pool and the alarm fired up. I sat up like a shot and heard Justin's feet hit the floor and come flying down the stairs. He was hysterical, thinking that Thanos had gotten up and was in the pool. Thanos never stirred, thankfully. My former spouse was incredibly sorry for freaking us out, and bringing all that back to us like that. Poor Justin!