Saturday, January 29, 2000
It was about 12:30AM and the phone in the apartment I was renting while separated from Randy rang. It was Randy. We had been separated but talking daily... or at least every few days. He was supposed to meet me out at a bar for the birthday party of a friend of a friend that night but he didn't show up. Randy was drunk and hardly coherent. He wasn't very nice... in fact, quite mean to me on the phone. But that was par for the course when he had been drinking. He said something extremely mean, hateful and hurtful to me and hung up the phone.
Twelve hours later, those words echoed in my head - I thought I'd NEVER forget them... 9 years later, I have. I remember thinking to my self that Randy & I were to get together Saturday afternoon after he got off work to cuss and discuss our marriage, but maybe I should just head out to our house "now", talk to him, spend the night and talk some more when he got off work. But I decided against it. I had been drinking and it had just started snowing and it was a 20 minute drive. AND I was going to see him Saturday afternoon, so... I stayed at my apt.
The next morning, it was snowing pretty good. My sis was staying with me and at about 10AM, she and I decided to go the to video store and rent some movies for the rest of the weekend. We put our shoes and coats on and were getting ready to head out, but I couldn't find my car keys. I was CERTAIN I had left them in my coat pocket but I could not find them for anything. Finally, after about 15 - 20 minutes of searching, I told my sister, "Let's just take your car, I'll find my keys when we get back". We were just about to walk out the door when my phone rang. The caller ID showed my mother in law's number. Ianswered the phone expecting it to be my MIL... it was her sister. She said, "Sharon [MIL] wants you to come out today." I told her that I'd be out there when Randy got off work. She said she needed me to come out there now. I said, "ok... what's going on?" She said, "Randy's dead" I said "NO WAY!! I just spoke to him around 12:30 this morning"
I don't really remember how the phone called ended. I do remember my sister's eyes getting really big and asking me what was going on when I yelled "no way" into the phone. She later told me she thought someone was messing with me - playing some awful joke...
After I hung up, I told her that Aunt Karla said that Randy was dead... she knew it wasn't a joke. We got in her car. I called my parents and said "Randy's dead. Get to Sharon and Larry's as soon as you can." I didn't realize at the time how long it would take them to get there. They lived 55 miles from my ILs and with the snow falling... I had NO information on what happened so who knows what my parents were thinking during their drive. I remember I was thinking, "why am I driving to Athens? Why didn't they tell me to go to the hospital?" I was sure that there was some mistake. That he couldn't be dead.
What should have been a 20 minute drive for my sis and I, took about 45 minutes due to the snow. I remember when we finally pulled into my ILs driveway, I just jumped out of the car. Sis hadn't even stopped all the way much less put it in park. I went running towards the door. I ran inside and someone grabbed me in a bear hug. At the time, I didn't even know who it was - it was my SIL, Camile. I was crying and I kept saying, "what happened?!? Someone tell me what happened?" The entire drive to Athens, I kept thinking that there was an accident at work. He was a mechanic. I kept thinking that the hydraulic lift collapsed and killed him... I just had no idea.
Hours later at my ILs, I went out to the garage to smoke a cigarette. It was cold, my hands were cold, so I put my hands in my coat pockets. Guess what I found... my car keys. They had been there the entire time. Personally, I believe that God didn't want me to find my keys; He didn't "let" me find my keys. For if I had found them, I would've been at the video store when my phong rang that morning. He was making sure I was home to get the phone call.
What did happen was... Randy didn't show up for work that morning. Around 9:00 his co-worker and good friend, Dave came by the shop. Their boss mentioned that Randy hadn't shown up - that was SO not like him, Randy had the best work ethics of anyone I've known - so Dave said he'd run by the house. Dave told me later that he knew Randy was supposed to meet up with me Friday night, so he figured that Randy just stayed at my apt with me. When Dave got to our house, he noticed the service door to our unattached garage was ajar. He went into the garage... and found Randy in my Camaro. He thoughtRandy was sleeping. He said he slammed his hand on the hood to scare Randy. But he didn't budge... he then opened the door... Randy still didn't move. He told me he had to reach accoss Randy to get the keys out of the ignition so he could go inside to call... he didn't even know who. I went inside and dialed the operator. He told me after he hung up the phone, he noticed a coat on the couch.. one he didn't recognize as being Randy's. He thought that I was in the bedroom asleep. He was freaking out about having to tell me what he found. The coat WAS Randy's... his dress coat. Dave was used to seeing Randyin his Carhart (sp) work coat which Randy was wearing in the car.
The story the police pieced together is this: after he and I spoke, he called some guys we went to HS with and left a message on their answering machine that he was coming over to do some shots. The garage door opener in my Camaro didn't always open the door the first time you hit the button... we think that Randy got in the car, hit the garage door opener and started the car. The garage door didn't open and Randy passed out. There was a bottle of Rum sitting on the passanger seat.
To Randy: You had your problems... WE had our problems... who knows what would have been... But you will always be in my heart. Until we meet again, I love you.
