5 Years

Nov. 22, 2011 - Those of us who were in Austin (Mom, Dad, Derek, me, and Tirzah, and Madison) went to the grave at around 5pm.  We noticed there was a man's body buried to the right of Marshall's grave.  Looks like it was buried last Dec. - we hadn't been to the grave for a whole year!  The other side are Mom and Dad's plots so those will stay open until they go to God.

It was pretty cold so we didn't stay very long.  Next we stopped at the crash site.  The cross looked more worn on the top - some of the paint is wearing off.  It always smells bad next to the dump.

It was windy and cold so we didn't stay there long either.  We headed back to the Hagen house and had dinner together.  Later we skyped with Hannah and Richard and talked through memories of the day of the accident and the following days afterwards.  I think it was pretty hard for my dad but helpful for my mom and me; Hannah shared some things that happened that my mom didn't even remember as she was so focused on Mason's condition.  Oh what a crazy, desperate time.  I shared the memory of when we had first gotten to the ER and heard that Marshall hadn't made it for sure and my dad sunk to the floor and cried out to God that He would raise him back to life like Lazarus.  Madison crouched in the corner between the wall and a couch.  I sat on the couch in a ball.  I don't know where Derek was.  Mom hadn't gotten there yet.  Hannah and Richard were driving to Ohio for a wedding.  When Mom got to the ER they asked if two of us wanted to go back and see Mason.  He was on a stretcher being triaged for his burns.

Even though it was hard and sad to talk about those things, it was very comforting just being together and being able to talk with Hannah via skype.  We really missed Mason not being there with us.

I'd like to write up the whole story sometime to be sure we don't forget it.  Even after 5 years we felt like some of the memories were foggy.

Then Dad read I Thessalonians 4 about the coming of the Lord:

 ¹³But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. ¹⁴For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁵For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. ¹⁸Therefore encourage one another with these words.

This is our hope!  Praise the Lord that He has promised us restoration, healing, joy, and RESURRECTION!

This is one of my favorite pictures of Marshall and me.
This was at a waltz class we were taking in Sept. 2004.
Marshall and I were dance partners for the classes.

Just because I don't post on here very often doesn't mean I don't think about Marshall very often.  I think about him all the time.  My heart still has a hole in it.  A piece of me is still missing.  I still long to see him and know him again.  "Uncle" Marshall has three nieces now; they will never know him on this earth.  It makes me sad every time my daughter T points to his picture on the fridge and I say, "Uncle Marshall."  She won't get to know him.  She won't get to see my relationship with him.  It is getting so weird now becoming friends with people who have never met him.  I feel like it's a part of ME they can never get to know.  I am thankful for so many of those who did know him and still know me well.

I still have dreams about him.  The most recent dream I had was: My family was together at some sort of arena.  Marshall was there visiting us from heaven.  He looked like a normal person to everyone else but we knew he was from heaven.  He had spiky hair and was wearing all black and a trench coat, of course.  There were some "bad guys" who were threatening me.  Marshall threw Chinese throwing stars at them and killed them all - bam, bam, bam - just like that.  His accuracy was incredible and everyone in the audience was amazed.  So dreams are weird but the point of this dream was that Marshall was protecting me.  It reminded me how much he cared for me.  He really did like me even if he didn't say it verbally.  We had this special relationship, this unseen understanding.  I'm sure God is using Marshall for great things right now.

I hate that as time goes on I feel like I am losing memories.  I am so thankful for pictures, letters, and the few videos, but I find it harder and harder to remember what he was really like day-to-day.  In some ways I didn't know him very well at all when he died.  In some ways God gradually distanced our relationship over the 2 years preceding his passing, perhaps to make his final absence easier to bear for all of us?

"I lift up my eyes to the hills.  Where does my help come from?  My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth."  (Ps 121)

There is SO much more I could say ... his absence affects me constantly: when someone asks me how many siblings I have ... when I visit the LEGO store in Orlando, FL ... when I see an mr2 ... when I hear of someone losing their son or brother ... when I look at my own daughter and think about all the thousands of memories I already have with her as her mother and she is only 15 months old - I can only imagine what my parents go through!  ... when someone else says they have three brothers and I have to stop myself from saying . "Me too!" so that I don't have to go through the whole story ("well, I mean, I used to, but now I just have two ... one died in a car accident ... uh, yeah, don't really want to tell the whole story right now") ... and when I hear of anyone dying anywhere ... O Lord, comfort the broken-hearted.  I know You fill my life with good things.

And to think ... God chose to lose His one and only Son for us scumbags!  Wow, I've never even thought of the grief of God the Father as His Son died!

I cling to the promise of seeing Marshall again.

Heidi

4 years

Promises

Mom's Marshall Promises:

Isaiah 13:3,4

“I have commanded My holy ones; I have summoned My warriors to carry out My wrath - those who rejoice in My triumph. Listen, a noise on the mountains, like that of a great multitude! Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms, like nations massing together! The Lord Almighty is mustering an army for war.”

Marshall was summoned

Revelation 19:14

“The armies of heaven were following Him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean.”

My most vivid dream . . .

Isaiah 57:1,2

“The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death.”

Marshall was spared from evil and given peace and rest.

Psalm 116:15

“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His godly ones.”

Ezekiel 24:16

“...with one blow I am about to take away from you the delight of your eyes.”

God took Ezekiel’s wife for the effect it would have on others. God will use Marshall’s death for the salvation of others.

John 12:24

“I tell you the truth, unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it bears much fruit and produces many seeds.”

Isaiah 12:3

“With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.”

Isaiah 49:20,21

“The children born during your bereavement will yet say in your hearing, ‘This place is too small for us; give us more space to live in.’ Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who bore me these? I was bereaved and barren; I was exiled and rejected. Who brought these up? I was left alone, but these - where have they come from' ”

Isaiah 51:2b

”When I called him he was but one, and I blessed him and made him many.”

Goodbye, I love you

I have been listening to this song by Pax 217 called, "Countin' Down the Days" that is about remembering someone who used to be on earth. You can listen to this song in full athttp://new.music.yahoo.com/pax-217/tracks/countin-down-the-days--7353371. He talks about how he is counting down the days until he can see that person again. Marshall's death and Mason's accident have really made me think about death every day. Whenever I leave some place, I often think about how I am leaving it. "What if I never return? Is this how I would want to leave things? What if I never see this person again? Is this how I would want our relationship to end?" It has also made me think about making the most of the time I have with people. On the week before the accident, I kept telling myself, "Oh, just focus on your school work now because you will get to hang out with Marshall during Thanksgiving break and you can ask him all about Iraq and everything then." Don't ever count on the future. You do not know what God has in store for you. He is the only One we can count on who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Hug and kiss your loved ones good-bye whenever you leave, whether for a day or a week. Don't leave anything unresolved - you may never get the chance. Appreciate even the not-so-lovely qualities in people because when they are gone you will miss the things that used to annoy you. No one got to say goodbye to Marshall but praise the Lord we will get to say "hello" to him someday.

"I'm gonna see you in a little while ...

when I die I'll see something beautiful ...

I'm countin down, countin down the days ...

now I'm waiting for the day, the day to come ... when I, when I will be with you ...

I know where you went, I know where you are ... I know who you're with cause you're just like Him. ... I'm gonna see you in a little while

echo in me, echo in me

every day every day

that goes by without you

that goes by without you

goodbye, I love you

come and see me sometime

Will found this letter from Marshall while opening up some old boxes. Marshall and Mason used to draw those "jet cars" all the time! It was one of their many obbsessive phases they went through. I still think of him every time I pass that office building near Far West and Mopac that has that bright yellow jet car outside (you can see it on Google Maps). Marshall used to ask Mom and Dad all the time if we could drive by it just so he could look at it. Marshall was actually quite a good artist and was very detailed and exact in his drawings. He liked to draw things on graph paper so that everything could be straight and perfect. He drew all kinds of vehicles most of the time and of course he drew weapons sometimes too. They would often look very realiztic and somehow he know how to make them look like they had just had a fresh coat of paint. We would tell him that he should be a car designer because he would always draw these creative cars. I would love to find some of those drawings - most of them are mixed in with his school notes or math homework. Gosh I miss his uniqueness so much.

A Dream

I have been having a couple vivid dreams lately. It's very rare for me to remember any of my dreams, but this one was so clear.

Marshall had a new car, and it was a light blue Prius! But inside it looked like his MR2 and it was old and tiny inside, with a bunch a school papers scattered in the back. I just remember him showing me the car and opening the driver's door for me to see inside. He was just there, being Marshall. Everything felt so normal. How I long to make this real! How I long to be standing next to him right now, just talking with him, just being "normal"! Seeing his little smirk, asking him questions, listening to his quirky comments ... I know there was more to the dream but I just can't remember any more ... oh I hate forgetting. I hope I dream about him again. Have any of you had dreams about Marshall or loved ones who have died? I remember I had one dream that was so clear soon after the accident ... it was just me and him and we were on this HUGE staircase - I guess the staircase to heaven. He was in a white robe and he was really shining. He said, "Everything is going to be ok." And that was all. I think my mind just made it up but I also beleive that God can use dreams to speak to us, so maybe that was just a reminder that I WILL see Marshall again in heaven someday ... someday soon.

Updated Slideshow Links

On the post from March 31, 2007, I had links to a slideshow I made of Marshall, containing many of the pictures that were displayed at the funeral.  I had to change the host site so the links are now updated.

Click here to see the original post.

Click here to view the folder with the two slideshow files, with mucic (35MB) or without music (13MB).

Heidi

Dehiscence

I have been longing to write on this blog for months. I think about it all the time. But I haven't been able to find words to say. I just have all of these feelings, but I don't have any nice story, or photo, or verse to go along with them in order to help describe them; just unripe feelings.

I was talking with my dear roommate Ursula the other night (or maybe it was day, I loose track) about how I was feeling sad about Marshall stuff again. And she said that she didn't think things are resolved with me. Then a few nights later we talked for hours about the day of the accident and the aftermath. I shared my story, Derek his, and Ursula hers. Everyone has a different story to tell. Where they were when they got the call. What they felt. What they did. How they grieved.

Dedicated men and women of faith say that the hardest times in life were also the best because they brought them closer to God and/or to loved ones. The couples who struggle with infertility talk about how their marriage grew stronger because they had to rely on each other and give it up to God continually. The singles who hurt from broken relationships speak of the wonderful healing God has brought them. The missionary who waited for 5 years before seeing the first fruit declares that God did a great work in him during that time. These are amazing stories and testiments of the work of God. But then I ask myself, why is it that the biggest, hardest, most hurtful and tragic thing that has ever happened to me has not left me feeling closer to God at all? Instead I feel simply numb. I wouldn't say distant from God - I feel like I kept the communication open - but just not as connected as I would expect after such a tragedy.

Dehiscence has two meanings:

One is the gapping or rupture of a wound, like when the two sides won't heal together.
But another is the splitting or bursting of a seed to yield fruit.

Perhaps I feel both at the same time. My heart has been ripped open and won't close up. Somestimes it pretends like it is healed, but then it gets bumped by the very slightest corner and falls all open and bleeding again. But perhaps this will keep happening until it bursts to bear fruit, to yeild some sort of good thing in the mess. God, where is the healing that comes after the wound? There is a scab and it comes off and bleeds but just scabs right back over again. Isn't there something I need to "work through"? What have I learned from Marshall's death? How have I grown closer to You, Lord? Make me understand! Give me some sort of retribution, conclusion, resolution, anything. Do I need to dig deeper, Lord, in order for You to heal me? What am I withholding?

Oh, perhaps I just need to be patient. Perhaps I am rushing the process. I know that there will never be complete healing until Christ Jesus returns for us and rescues us from everything. And then He will "make all things new." I wonder if a new heart comes with my new body. Will I remember all the hurt? Is remembering painful?

Heidi

"'Cause all too soon, the clock will strike midnight, and she'll be gone ..."

I first heard about the death of Steven Curtis Chapman's youngest daughter from Hannah while I was in Florida for her graduation. It was May 22, 18 months to the day after the death of my brother. Because I intimately know the pain the whole family was going through, it was hard for me to go on with the day as usual. I cried for them, thinking of all the emotions they were being bombarded with right then. I wanted to just sit on the carpet of Hannah and Richard's living room for the whole day and sulk. I didn't feel like eating breakfast, or doing anything else that day. How can I just go on with life as if nothing happened? WHY? Why do I have to keep living in this world so full of pain and saddness? I am so tired of it! I am so weary! I can't stand it! My heart aches and aches for the Chapmans. I have too much compassion, it's killing me. I always feel so hurt whenever I hear about anything sad in the world. And there is just too much of it, I can't bear it. I can't get depressed everytime I hear about another soldier killed in Iraq, or the people dying of starvation in Burma/Myanmar because the government won't let aid in, or the Christian families in China whose dads are in prison for preaching the gospel, or the African children inflicted with AIDS, or the Mexican woman who was murdered in her car a few days ago in Austin, or my patients when they lose their baby... there is pain, saddness, wickedness, and death all around me that I would just commit suicide immediately if I really let it all get to me, if I dwelt on all of it. Sometimes I feel like I am being disrespectful by simply going on with life after hearing about such great tradgeties. Someone somewhere is experiencing that undescribable pain and emptyness that I myself have tasted, and I wish no one ever had to feel that.

I know there are many differences in the Chapman's accident and ours, but still, there are a lot of things we could relate to. Her brother was pulling into the driveway in the SUV and he didn't see her. I can't imagine what he must be going through.

"Oh my goodness, and listen to this," Hannah said as she continued reading the news about the Chapmans on the internet. "Oh my goodness. The oldest daughter had just gotten engaged days before the accident."

Wow, hey, kind of like me.

Planned months before his daughter's death, the Cinderella edition of Steven Curtis Chapman's newest album was released on my one year wedding anniversary, May 27.

I have stopped wearing all black every 22nd day of the month, I guess that's progress. There just came a time a few months ago when I didn't feel like I needed to wear it anymore.

I don't know if the grief has gotten any easier or not. Some days I think it has. Other days I think, No, it doesn't get any better. It is exactly the same; there are just longer periods of numbness in between the periods of intense longing and complete aloneness.

Little things continually remind me of him. I pass "Marshall Lane" off Enfield every day on my way to work. There is a doctor at Brackenridge named Kimberly Marshall. Ironic first name since that is Marshall's closest aunt's name (mom's sister Kim). We went to the Lego store at Downtown Disney in Orlando and I could not clear my head the entire time I was in the store of images of Marshall and Mason playing Legos when they were younger. It was pretty much an everyday activity for him. He loved building vehicles especially; anything that could be driven: space ships, race cars, monster trucks, underwater vehicles, tracked-trucks, and lots of other things with wheels and guns. Oh yeah, and I walk by the Travis County Medical Examiner's Office all the time as it is next door to Brackenridge Hospital. I wonder where the pictures of Marshall's body are kept in what file inside. I wonder who works there who has seen my brother's disfigured body. As I pass the white and red vehicles that say "Medical Examiner" on the sides I wonder which one his body came in. Sometimes I imagine simply walking in and asking about him at the front desk. I'm sure that would really go over well. And of course I WORK in the hospital where my brother was lifeflighted in by helicopter and spent two and a half weeks recovering in. I've spent sleepless nights at that hospital not just as a nurse during night shift but as a patient's weary family member. I always give the dads or grandmas extra blankets when they stay the night because I know how uncomfortable those hospital cots are. And how annoying the ticking of the IVs are, and how loud the nurses station is, and how frequently someone comes in the room at night to draw blood or something. Now I'm on the other side, and I guess I am a better nurse for it because I know what people are going through.

Well, I guess I should wrap this up. This blog is so good for venting. But I am committed to making it more than an emotional outlet; it must be a place where I learn truth and announce it as well as my sorrows.

So the reason I do not dwell in depression or stay sulky all the time is because I know something, or Someone, higher than this tiny world. There is something more then us humans just being born and dying. I have been listening to the Psalms when Derek is out of town (his car is so super high tech that it has a CD player ...). I have been overwhelmed with how often the authors of the Psalms praise God for His constant presence and comfort for His people. There is a huge Being out there who deeply cares for all of His people. Not one of them goes unnoticed. He tenderly cares for each one of them.

Psalm 3:8: From the LORD comes deliverance. May your blessing be on your people.

Psalm 4:8: 8 I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.

Psalm 5:11 But let all who take refuge in You be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread Your protection over them, that those who love Your name may rejoice in You.
12 For surely, O LORD, You bless the righteous; You surround them with Your favor as with a shield.

Psalm 6:9 The LORD has heard my cry for mercy; the LORD accepts my prayer.
10 All my enemies will be ashamed and dismayed; they will turn back in sudden disgrace.

And pretty much all of Psalm 7:
6 Arise, O LORD, in your anger;
rise up against the rage of my enemies.
Awake, my God; decree justice.
7 Let the assembled peoples gather around You.
Rule over them from on high; 8 let the LORD judge the peoples.
Judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness,
according to my integrity, O Most High.
9 O righteous God,
who searches minds and hearts,
bring to an end the violence of the wicked
and make the righteous secure.
10 My shield is God Most High,
who saves the upright in heart.
11 God is a righteous judge,
a God who expresses His wrath every day.

Psalm 9:9 The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. …
12 For He who avenges blood remembers; He does not ignore the cry of the afflicted. …
18 But the needy will not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the afflicted ever perish.

Praise the Lord that I do not have to bear the burden of all the pain in this world. God never forgets. He upholds our hope.

Love,
Heidi