Loss.

This morning after I dropped Garret off at VPK I sat and logged in to Facebook to see what the world was up to and as I am scrolling through I read that my oldest sons friend had lost his mother late Monday evening. I was shocked.....and sad. 

A little back story....when my (now) 9 yr old daughter was in Pre K (she was late 3) the oldest was in 2nd grade and I would pick her up first and we would walk across the basketball courts to the classrooms and pick up my son. We passed this woman daily for months. I was also pregnant with my now 5 yr old son at the time and he was also born during these daily run ins. She would comment on the pregnancy off and on, she would ask how the baby was or stop and look at him, and we would say hi but that was about it. Then summer came and went and the kids went back to school and the oldest was in the same class as her son but I was not aware of her being his mother because I had not seen her anymore. My son and his friend started hanging out all the time...after school, on weekends and holidays and whenever there was any free time. Well that was 3rd grade, they had 4th grade together, and during 5th when my son started homeschool they still stayed close and spent whatever time together. Now they are both going into 7th grade this fall and they are still friends, good friends, the kind of childhood friends that will hopefully grow up together and continue to grow up together. They are such good friends that when we talk about moving, because we are planning on moving within the next 9ish months, we talk about being close enough for them to be able to hang out. I am sure we will never move terribly far away but we have discussed moving out of state, like South Carolina maybe, but in all reality we would stay in Florida, Tampa or St Pete even, but as of now we are still here in Tampa. 
Anyways the kids hung out and his gramma would pick him up or drop him off, we would see each other at school or while the kids were going back and forth and from what I understood the mother was out of the picture. I had since found out that she was in prison for about a year because all of a sudden she had returned. From what I was told her and the father were trying to work things out and stay together but I guess that did not happen. A little less than a year ago that had split up again but she was coming around to see the kids. Since then we have seen here and talked to her off and on.
My son and his friend have become friends, really good friends. They are back and forth between our house and theirs constantly. The Easter Bunny makes sure to leave a basket here every year for him and Santa also leaves some goodies, and we include him in birthdays and all the other little holidays and things we celebrate. We take cupcakes into his class for his birthday and we take a cake to his house, he is in a ton of our pictures, we drop off goodies for his class at Halloween, we have made Mothers Day gifts for his mom, Grandparents Day crafts for his gramma, and so on. We have treated him just as one of our own. I did not know the mother very well and had not spoke to her too much other than in the beginning before they were friends and over about 6-8 months after she was back here and there but we do know the son well. 
And this is very sad for him. He is a very quiet child and I think this will be something he keeps in. I hope that the friendship he has with my son will maybe be developed enough that he can and will talk to him if he needs or wants to. Myself and the kids here were shocked to hear she had passed and my kids have never really had to deal with losing someone so I dont think they know what (or how) to say so I just told them to not ask questions. He is here now playing games with the boys and I told them that if he starts to talk or bring it up just let him talk. I wish there was something more that could be done but I just dont know what at this point. 


Accident. Apparently she was walking and was hit by a car.