GoodBye Uncle Scott

As I sit down to write this blog of the passing of my Uncle I am flooded with emotions.  It started about 3weeks ago.  I got a call early in the morning to tell me that Uncle Scott had been in a horrible accident and was burnt over 70% of his body.  My heart sunk.  I haven't seen Scott in a couple years, but the Idea that someone we love had suffered such terrible burns just turned my stomach and brought such an ache to my heart.  I began to cry as I thought about how young Scott was and for  his children and my dad and his sibling but the person I was aching for the most was my grandma.  Being a mother myself  now I just can't imagine the pain and worry she must have been feeling.  Scott fought for a week before letting go.  I can't get over how sad this has made me.  All the questions of Why and How were consuming my thought , my dreams and my days.  Things like this really make you look up at your life and remind me of how fragile life is.  It brought up emotions of how family is really the most important thing and the guilt of not staying better in touch.  I was flooded with emotions over the reasons so many in the family had been disconnected to Scott.  As I began to pray the night he died I felt someone whisper to me that it not mine or any ones else place to judge the things Scott had been going thru in the last years of his life.  I am reminded that we are all human and that God wants us to always take a stand for the ones we love even when its so hard.  He made us a family for a reason and he trusted us to take care of each other.  Because of these reminders I felt it was very important for me to go and support my grandma and his children.  I decided that I wanted to do something special for them so I did my best to hurry up and put a book of pictures of Scott's life.  I wanted so badly to go to his funeral that I was so grateful that it worked out for me to ride with my parents.  As we began our trip to Washington I was doing ok but as we got to hotel and then my Aunts and Uncles that I don't get to see often enough started to arrive I realized this is really happening.  I had the opportunity to sing at Scott's funeral.  I was honored to be able to do something for him.   The next two days were some of the most emotional days of my life.  There is nothing worse than watching the ones you love suffer.  I don't know if I can find the words to describe how amazing he services were.  The military was incredible.  Watching the major take care of grandma was indescribable. My grandma deserved every bit of the love and respect she was being given.  It was so amazing to learn more of how incredible my uncle was.  Now I know he was not perfect and he had his own struggles just like us all but there were so many amazing things I didnt' realize about him.  He served our country for 2 decades, he had served two tours in Iraq in hostile territory taking care of our soldiers ,  he was an incredible periodontist and was a mentor and coach for so many new people entering the dental field.  He loved his job and took if very serious and such a passion for it that it showed thru the way he treated his patients and his staff.  He loved teaching, writing poetry, and Music.  When they did last roll call it took me everything to stand.  Hearing his name be called out three times and hearing the dead silence, then the 21 gun salute and taps just brought it all home.    My words don't do these services justice.  I know that there were so many family members that weren't able to attend so I took as many pictures and video as I could so everyone could feel apart of saying Goodbye to Scott.  Some of these picture are hard to see and sad but I want to remember everything.  I will be adding the videos of the services as soon as I get them edited .


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp263EihaOk