To my husband...

Before I go into birthday wishes and all that I want to ask a favor of you all.

Sunday evening, here in our county, the body of a male in his early to mid 30's was found down an embankment on the side of the mountain. This body was found by a tourist who stopped at a pull off to get a better look at the beautiful view. The tourist got out of his car and was looking around when he looked down and saw the body.

The authorities said the body had been there for a few days. They took the body to The University of Tennessee Medical Center (U.T. Hospital) to do an autopsy. We were watching the 6 o'clock news last night when they said the body had been identified by his fingerprints. The news anchor gave the name of the man and I watched my husband turn white as a sheet. It turns out it was my husbands cousin that was found.

The news report didn't give any other information and my husband immediately called his dad to find out if he had heard anything about this. My father-in-law hadn't heard and was going to make a few calls and see what he could come up with. By 10 PM my f-i-l still didn't know anything other than what the news report had said and none of the news stations even mentioned the body on the 11 o'clock news.

My husband is really upset about this because he and "S" were really close growing up. During the teenage years, like most, my husband and his cousin "S" tried a few drugs and drinking and continued to do them for a while. My husband grew out of most of this by the time I met him and he drifted away from "S" because of the drugs and drinking. Five or six years ago we read in the paper about "S" getting caught with some drugs and spending some time in prison over it.

We ran into "S" about three months ago in Wal-Mart and it really bothered Mr. B because even though S was only 35 he looked 60 from the hard drugs.

Today is my husbands 35th birthday and one he will never forget because of this death. He is trying to put on an "I'm okay" front but I can see through it and I know that he is hurting. Mr. B has prayed and prayed for S since seeing him three months ago and now he is just torn to pieces over this. Mr. B and I were driving down the road last night and he was basically thinking out loud. He kept saying things like "this is bad because I know that he was probably killed over drugs" or "I hope somebody didn't take him up there on that mountain and beat him to near death then throw him over while he was still alive and he laid there for days alone" or "I hope it was a fast death for him".

I am sure the same thoughts are going through a lot of minds tonight because there was no vehicle or anything else found at the scene and the authorities obviously expect foul play because they are being real tight lipped about it which is normal in cases such as this. I just pray that they release more info later today about it. Mr. B and I will be going to visit S's parents today and I hope that they can tell him more because right now his mind is running in every direction trying to figure out what happened.

Mr. B said tonight that the sad thing is that S was such a smart, tender hearted, talented person who had his whole life in front of him and now that life has been snuffed out because of bad choices.

With all that being said I would like to ask all of you to remember my husband in your prayers and the rest of the family. I pray that I can be a ray of sunshine through the clouds for him as he has been for me many times.

Now for birthday wishes.....

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful man as a husband and a father to my children. When I asked Mr. B a month or so ago what he wanted for his birthday he told me that he wanted our new home completed so that we can move in. His wish didn't happen before his birthday but it was very close because we close on the house in a couple of days and then we should be moving in by April 1st, depending on how fast the power company is about getting our electric turned on.

Mr. B,
Thank you for always being there when I have needed a friend. There are no words to explain my love for you. After 16 years together you still cause me to get butterflies in my stomach when you walk in the room , sometimes it is when you walk through my thoughts during the day.
HAPPY 35th BIRTHDAY, I love you! I hope to share many more birthdays with you!

Love,
Heather