“Thank You” is not enough
On Sunday (09/23), there was a sheriff knocking on the door to deliver the news that my brother was killed in a car accident. It was unreal. Before I knew it, I was in one hospital room with a broken-armed, swollen 6 week old Mackenzie saying the rosary for nearly 9 hours while my husband was on another floor doing the same with our one year old niece flip-flopping in her crib. We had sent our folks away to get some sleep. This is how we started off our week which was eventually capped off with a beautiful memorial with the babies and Aleisha in tow. I gave a eulogy and my knees shook through the whole thing, but it was beautiful (and packed).
This past week has been a blur, but with God’s grace, we are rediscovering a sense of normalcy. The house is now quiet for the first time in days and family has left town and my laptop is burning my lap for being used for the last several hours. I have visted numerous blogs not only to catch up but to thank everyone one-on-one (and I know I’ve missed some of you). My cell phone has probably gone way over its minutes from endless phone calls. Really, y’all, this would have been so much more difficult for me if I hadn’t had your emails, calls, Facebook messages, blogging efforts, ALL OF THE BLOG COMMENTS all over the place, and most importantly, for your fundraising.
I’ve told many of you that I can’t even come up with a word for how I feel, but decided today that “blessed” would have to suffice. God has blessed us with the survival of Aaron’s wife and children and Aaron wouldn’t have had it any other way. The photo above is a cross erected by my uncles at the site with a rosary from my father. These strong men were very shaken up and told me privately that there is no way anyone should have survived this terrible accident. God is really with us.
Not only are words difficult to find in this humbling time, but “thank you” doesn’t seem to suffice for my level of gratitude. While endless people have spent much time and effort promoting the green ribbon for Aaron’s children and wife, five special people deserve special attention:
First and foremost, I am eternally indebted to Jay Thompson. Jay has spent endless hours and days focused on the needs of me and my family. Not only did he set up the Pay Pal account for the green ribbon campaign, he is paying the 3% transaction fee on every single donation! Jay is promoting the green ribbon on his numerous blogs, has kept track of people who are also using the ribbon, followed up with them for me (knowing I was stressing about that), and has set up the legacy guestbook and paid for that subscription. Jay began and is continuing to manage an “In Memory Of” group on Facebook. Jay is a gift from God and if I were searching for a Realtor in his area, I’d use him in a heartbeat!
April Groves is my best blog friend (BBF) and with a simple phone call, she set all of this in motion. With this request, April got onto my blog to post an article about our loss of Aaron. Then, she called anyone and everyone she knew whether they were in the Real Estate blog world or otherwise and told them what had happened, making sure this topic would not go unaddressed. She also managed my stress levels by running “thank you” comment interference for me. April has called me every day since my brother died and has really been a rock to me.
Greg Swann not only created the green ribbon link for all to promote, he has written endlessly demanding that the green ribbon never be forgotten. Greg stopped the blog world for a few days and focused attention on how to help Aleisha- he has gumption and will not give up. His coordination and promotion has truly made a difference and his creative ideas are why Aleisha will be okay. (Special mention to Derek Burress for imagining the green ribbon)
Brian Brady, after several Facebook connections between us, realized we shared a Catholic faith. He took a leap of faith and not only sent a wonderful donation to Aleisha, he got in touch with his local Knights of Columbus leader to present this donation, a gorgeous rosary and pledge to help in person. He and I had a wonderful conversation today and his not being scared to wear his faith on his sleeve was extremely touching.
Michael Price actually auctioned off his super sweet tricked out 30GB iPod and the anonymous auction winner (you know who you are- THANK YOU, friend) is donating the iPod to Toys for Tots- we all win! Michael, I know you will miss your beloved toy and your donation is impressive and we all thank you- you were really thinking on your feet, and your kind emails will be held close to my heart.
I’ve told many of you that I don’t wish you to be in this situation, but if you ever are, I promise to be here for you in return- that’s the best thank you I can offer you all.
My family and friends have found comfort in reading all of your articles, so please peruse this collection of blogs that relate to saying goodbye to my brother, Ben Aaron Anglin (and this is in NO particular order):
Single Pointe Realty, Benn Rosales
America’s Mortgage Broker, Brian Brady
Florida Mortgage Report, Robert Ashby
San Diego Home Blog, Kris Berg
Real Estate Zebra, Daniel Rothamel
Arizona Mortgage Guru, Shailesh Ghimire
Future of Real Estate Marketing, Joel Burslem
Geek Estate Blog, Michael Price
Kansas City Real Estate Investing Blog, Chris Lengquist
Luxury Home Digest, Roberta Murphy
Make It Great!, Phil Gerbyshak
My Beautiful Chaos, April Groves
Another from My Beautiful Chaos, April Groves
Another from My Beautiful Chaos, April Groves
Making Life Work For You, April Groves
Another from Making Life Work For You, April Groves
Dalton’s AZ Homes, Jonathan Dalton
Another from Dalton’s AZ Homes, Jonathan Dalton
San Mateo Real Estate, Vicki Moore
The Housechick Blog, Kelley Koehler
Phoenix Real Estate Guy, Jay Thompson
Another from Phoenix Real Estate Guy, Jay Thompson
Another from Phoenix Real Estate Guy, Jay Thompson
Another from Phoenix Real Estate Guy, Jay Thompson
Another from Phoenix Real Estate Guy, Jay Thompson
Another from Phoenix Real Estate Guy, Jay Thompson
Another from Phoenix Real Estate Guy, Jay Thompson
604 Homes Blog, Matthew Collinge
Beltway Ramblings, Mary DeLuca
Carnival of Real Estate, Drew Meyers
Personal Insights on Web 2.0, Drew Meyers
Rain City Guide, Dustin Luther
Indianapolis Real Estate, Paula Henry
Shards of Consciousness, Rick Cockrum
Another from Bloodhound Blog, Greg Swann
Another from Bloodhound Blog, Greg Swann
Another from Bloodhound Blog, Greg Swann
Another from Bloodhound Blog, Greg Swann
North Kansas City Real Estate, Fran White
Our articles this last week:
R.E. Revealed, Benn Rosales
R.E. Revealed, April Groves & Lani Anglin
R.E. Revealed, Benn Rosales
I’ve missed several, but hopefully have gotten the bulk of your contributions. Thank you so much everyone- the Real Estate community online truly is great.
October 3rd, 2007 at 1:40 pm
You already know….
October 3rd, 2007 at 8:10 pm
Welcome back, Lani. You are an amazingly strong woman. We will continue to send our prayers your way as the long healing process begins.
We’ve missed you.
October 4th, 2007 at 6:22 am
Lani. I look forward to meeting you and Benn soon. Take care and please give my heartfelt best wishes to Aleisha. We’ll be sure to send some surprises to the girls at Christmas time.
October 4th, 2007 at 7:02 am
[...] Anglin follows up on her brother [...]
October 6th, 2007 at 10:00 am
[...] garnered our video nearly 3,000 views within a week’s time- although 800 of those views came after the star’s death. Needless to say, the video continues to be viewed by people all over the [...]
October 8th, 2007 at 1:10 am
[...] Insignificance Of The Monthly Jobs Report (October 2007 Edition)Lani Anlgin — Aaron Anglin, “Thank You” is not enoughAlex Mather — NAR, REALTOR This, REALTOR That, An Open Letter to the NARJim Watkins — [...]
October 10th, 2007 at 10:59 am
[...] local news picked up the story of Aaron’s accident (and the fuzzy details) and interviewed Aleisha today. Story aside, here is video of our baby [...]
November 7th, 2007 at 1:10 am
[...] by the way a group of people, most of whom have never met in person, came together spontaneously to help the Anglin family? That is the type of thing that stays with you [...]
November 12th, 2007 at 9:16 am
[...] and death seems so far away, you just don’t see the need for a plan. When my brother (24) was killed a few weeks ago, the family had to scramble to figure out how to bury a young father and husband who had no life [...]