On July 30, 2007, we had my Cousin, Hunter’s, second birthday party. While we were eating, somebody threw food at the back of my head. I thought it was my Cousin Jordan who threw the food, but he said it was his dad, my uncle. I kept blaming my Cousin Jordan over, and over again for throwing the food.

The next day, July 31, 2207, my mom came home from work, and she was talking on the phone, and I noticed that she had been crying. When I asked her what was wrong, she said, “Jordan was in a car accident.” After awhile, my uncle and his son, my cousin, showed up at our house to take my brother and sister tubing. I could not go, because I had casts on my feet, from my foot surgery. Before my brother and sister left, we got a terrible phone call. My grandma called my mom and my mom hit the floor, bawling, and screaming NO…! When I saw my mom bawling, I started to bawl. My grandma my mom, I found out, that Jordan had died.

I found out that, at about one o’clock, on the July 31, my Cousin Jordan and his cousin Matt got into a car accident when they were on their way to pick up Jordan’s older brother, Josh, and Jordan’s nephew, Josh’s two year old son Hunter. Josh blames himself to his day, for the death of his brother, since he died on the way to pick Josh and Josh’s son Hunter, but it was not Josh’s fault. Jordan and his cousin, Matt, were just in the wrong place, at the wrong time. The car accident was about a mile away from Jordan’s parents’ house. Jordan’s parents have to pass the accident site, if they want to go anywhere. There is a different route they can take, but it is twice as long as the one passing the accident site.
Jordan and his cousin Matt were on their way to pick up Josh and Hunter, when a man, also named Matt, and his girlfriend, and her daughter, all from Fredrick, were being chased by the cops. The cops had stopped chasing them, but they did not know that. Matt, the other driver, ran a stop sign, and t-boned Jordan and his cousin Matt. What I mean by getting t-boned, is, the other driver, Matt, hit the front passenger corner of the vehicle that Jordan and his cousin Matt were in. Nobody was wearing seatbelts, so everybody got thrown from their vehicles. Jordan’s cousin Matt got pinned under his car. Jordan and his cousin Matt got rushed to Regions in Minnesota, by helicopter. The two girls did too, but were released with no injuries. The other driver, Matt, died at the scene. Jordan’s cousin Matt had half his skull missing and lived, but my Cousin Jordan, laid on the operating table, and suffered for about three hours before he died at about four o’clock, because of his internal bleeding. The doctors would not help him, so he died. The doctors probably could not help him, but I do not really know. Jordan was only 18 years old when he died. He did not even get to finish his senior year of high school.
The night Jordan died; I had to spend the night with my brother and sister, at my uncle’s house. The next day, my sister, my brother, and I, had to go to my dad’s friend’s house. Then my mom finally came and picked us up. We then went to the car accident site, and I laid down exactly where Jordan landed and laid, I just laid there bawling. When my Cousin Cody, Jordan’s little brother, showed up, I was standing in the field, and Cody came over to me bawling. I looked away, so I would not start bawling, but he said, “Lissy” and I looked at him and started bawling. Cody and I just stood there, hugging each other, for a really long time. Cody kept saying, “He is gone Lissy, he killed my brother.” I kept hugging Cody and telling him, “I know Cody, I know.”
A week or so later, we had Jordan’s visitation. A few days or so before the visitation, I watched people put pictures on picture boards of Jordan for his visitation. When we got to the visitation, my mom asked me, “Do you want to go up and see Jordan?” I said, “Yes, I do.” When I was going up to the casket, with my mom, Jordan’s mom, my aunt, said, “You know he loved you,” and I started bawling after she said that. When I was by myself, I went up to Jordan’s casket, and I touched his body. Jordan’s body was stiff and cold. At that time, my sister came up to the casket, and she and I put our notes we wrote for Jordan, in his casket, along with our school pictures. My brother came up to the casket at that time too, and he also put his school picture in Jordan’s casket. When I stopped bawling, I went by myself into the room where they put Jordan’s picture boards; I just stood in there, looking at the pictures, and I started bawling again. I said to myself, “Alyssa, they are just pictures, why did you start bawling again?” I now know why I started bawling again from just looking at the pictures. It was because; I remember what was going on in the pictures, and what we were doing in the pictures, and that kind of stuff.
After the visitation, we had the funeral. At the funeral, the family went downstairs with the pastor to pray. My grandma could not go downstairs, because she was in a wheelchair because she had foot surgery, but there was no way for my grandma to get downstairs anyway, so since I was on crutches from my foot surgery, I just stayed upstairs with my grandma. My grandma was not on crutches too, because she would have had a hard time standing so much. After the funeral, everybody went outside to where Jordan was getting buried to pray and say our farewells. All the kids got yellow and green balloons, representing the Packers, which Jordan loved, to let go in his memory.
Even to this day, I feel bad because I did not get the chance to tell Jordan, before he died, that I am so sorry for blaming him, for throwing the food at the back of my head, at Hunter’s second birthday party, when I now know, it was not Jordan who threw the food, but it was in fact, his dad, my uncle, who threw the food at my head. I miss and love Jordan so much, and I always will, forever and ever.