You Will Be Dearly Missed Shelly

This past weekend was a pretty rough one - I went to my first funeral for a friend. Shelly Emmott was killed in a car accident Tuesday, December the 12th. They are still not sure what exactly happened, but she was killed instantly. Initially we were told it was a head-on collision, but now it sounds like she bumped into the car beside her and ended up in the ditch.

I first met Shelly ten years ago at a youth retreat, but I didn't really get to know her until I first met Dana. Dana and Shelly had gone to a year of Bible College (BLEC) together and were quick adopted sisters. So over the years I'd see Shelly from time to time and eventually we chatted regularly on MSN. When I heard what happened I knew I had to get to Toronto for the funeral. I took Friday afternoon off so I could make the visitation that night and all of Monday off as well so I didn't have to take off too quickly.

Since Shelly was so young (29) and so well liked the visitations and funeral were packed. Everyone was in shock. I'm sure a lot of people showed up just to make sure there wasn't some kind of mistake... hoping was more like it. It was so hard to see Andrew, Shelly's husband of three years, as broken as he was. Dana and her other classmates from BLEC were taking it really hard as well. It was hard not to feel out of place because I didn't know Shelly nearly as well as they did. I'm still kind of numb about the whole experience. I definitely wish I could still be down there with Andy and Dana.

Matthew