This morning my phone rang and I answered it. A teary voice on the other end said, “Chris died.”

I said, “What?!”

“Chris died this morning.”

I am thinking, okay, he has diabetes. He’s a big guy, maybe it was a heart attack. I am trying to pull the corded phone over to where I can pick up the cell and call R who had just left the house a few minutes before and tell him to come home.

But I can’t believe what the voice on the other end is saying.

“My brother Chris?”

And the voice says, “Oh my goodness. This is Angie. No, my friend Chris.”

And I collapse in a chair with my heart beating at twice its normal rate and have trouble steadying my breathing. My eyes are full of tears and I can’t see.

This is what his family is feeling this morning.

God, please bless Cynthia and Cheyenne. Give them comfort as only you will be able to.

And I had to call R to settle down. I was still hyperventilating when I got off the phone with him.