Meeting the Stegman's

I had a very interesting experience today. I was able to meet my dad's best friends' parents. The sad thing is that my dad's best friend, Dan, died when he and my dad were only 19 years old. They were sitting in lawn chairs on the side of the road in front of my dad's house when they were hit by a car -- Dan was hit first and ended up under the car, and died instantly. My dad was hit and the impact sent him flying, and he ended up skidding on the street on his back for about 60 feet. My dad had countless bones broken, and had to re-learn how to walk and move some parts of his body.

Even 30 years later, the pain is very real and very prominent in my dad's life. He gets choked up whenever he talks about Dan, and my brother Daniel is his namesake, of course my father's request. He visits the Stegmans every now and then, and always tells us that he wants us to meet them. Today he finally took all of us - me, my mom, and my brother - over to meet them. Karen and Dean Stegman; Keaner and Deaner, as my dad calls them. I wasn't necessarily nervous to meet them, I just didn't know what to expect. I honestly didn't really want to spend a lot of time talking about sad things, as selfish as that sounds, and sort of thought that sad things might come up in conversation. To see the hearts of all the people around me breaking as they tell stories and remember their son and friend is not my most favorite thing in this world. Instead, though (thankfully), we talked about happy things -- our lives and their lives, grandchildren, distant relatives, dreams, school, future careers, funny moments and fond memories. They told us stories about their kids, and talked a lot about their only living son (out of four :( truly heartbreaking...) and all of the things going on in his life. They asked me and my brother questions about what we like to do, what we want to do, and things we want to do with our lives. Karen's brother became Mormon when he was 17, so his whole family now is Mormon and live all over Utah. Her nephew is a professor at BYU, so she told me to find him so that I could "have a little piece of family" with me in Utah. I have to tell you, I honestly fell in love with these people. I have never seen or talked to such sweet, loving people. I was so thankful that my dad took us over there today. I was so happy that I was able to meet them, become friends with them, share stories with them, and feel at the end as though they really could be a part of my family. I miss them already; I didn't want to leave. I wish so much that I would have been able to meet them sooner, so that I could have spent more time with them. My time now is so limited, and it makes me so sad. There are people that come into your life and bless it so much -- Keaner and Deaner are those people. I am in love with them, and can't wait to see them again.

I found this picture on Pinterest, and it reminds me of the Stegman's house. There's something special - "homey" - about houses that were built in the 60's. I love them, just not as much as I love the Stegmans. :)