Tragedy and Faith

Three years ago tragedy struck Iowa when a plane load of young talented professionals from a firm called Two Rivers Marketing crashed in Illinois returning from a trip. While I didn't have a direct connection with anyone on that flight, I did know the pilot Mitch Trewet, Atlantic native and I know the parents of one of the other people on the plane - Tom Dunphy. Paul and I have known the Dunphy family for 25 years now - since we moved to Creston - Tom's brother Todd and his uncle and namesake Tom and his wife Charlene who are now neighbors of ours.

I remember when the accident happened, how sad I felt for Ron and Dottie, Tom's parents to have lost a son - one who sounded like such a genuinely great guy. I recall reading the stories in the Register about all the amazing people who died that day. I felt so bad to read about Mitch Trewet, the pilot, whom I had known as a kid - we were on the swim team together. Pilot error and overloading the plane were blamed for the accident.

When I started at DNR two years ago, I met Heather Jacobs - and found out she was the widow of Eric Jacobs one of the plane wreck victims. Now she is the single parent of five children - four boys and a baby girl born after her father died. Heather works one day a week for the Pollution Prevention Program in my section at DNR. Our paths don't cross often but when I have had a chance to talk to Heather I've found her to be a very cool lady - funny and...a Cyclone fan too.

Last Sunday Paul picked up a Des Moines Register and I began reading a series in the paper - "Eric's Last Wishes". I was surprised to discover it was about Heather - the story of her life with her husband, his tragic death and her life since then. The most striking part of the series to me was the fact that when Eric died, he left behind a CD - he had recorded just weeks before. He had awakened in the middle of the night with a feeling he could die young. He got up, went downstairs, sat at his computer and recorded a message for his wife and family.

Was it a message from God? That really gets to me! I haven't watched the video. Too painful to consider watching it.
Link to series is here: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=specialsection&keyword=erics-last-wishes

Check out photo 22 of photos.
....Another funny thing is that in part 3 of the series, there is a photo from Heather tailgating at an ISU game - and Jud and I are in the background! (it makes my butt look big!)

I talked to Heather on Wednesday at work - she brought her daughter in (she's 3 now and was was wearing a crown and a crazy pink outfit) briefly to fill out a form. I told her the small world thing about me being in her photo. But I also told her how much I appreciated her baring her life for the series. I said that Paul and I had lost a baby and that back then I read everything I could about people who had gone through losing a child. I needed to see that people could survive it. This series will help others I'm sure, I told her.

Heather said she'd already received many supportive emails. I'm glad. It is often easy to lose faith - to begin to think this is it, and then you die. Stories like Eric's help me believe in a higher power!