Roller Coaster Ride

The last week has been a roller coaster of sorts.

I drove to Des Moines Tuesday morning at 10am, flew out to Houston, TX at 3pm, arrived at 5pm and my baby brother and his friend picked me up at the airport 15 minutes later. We stopped at Red Lobster and I ate for the first time in over 24 hours, and then I drove my cousin’s husband’s truck back to Kirbyville and got there around 10:30pm. The whole four days down there was so surreal…It felt like a dream that I just could not wake up from, no matter how hard I tried.

The turnout for Kael’s funeral was incredible…there had to be at least 700 people in attendance on Thursday.

This was quite an emotional week for me, and I tried to hold it in for the most part because for me it was very personal. I watch Kael grow up, and even though I did not have the closeness that my brother’s and everyone else had with him (Because I have been gone for 11 years), it still left a big hole in my heart. I always looked forward to seeing him and his wife when I came down. He could always find a way to get a rise out of you or make you laugh, and you couldn’t help but love him. It seems that I was not alone in that feeling, with the turnout at the funeral and the wake.

There were so many touching stories and testimonials given at the funeral, including my cousin Josh (Who is a Captain in the Army, Just returned from Iraq, and is Kael’s baby brother) who expressed how proud he was of his brother.

Kael turned around the band program at the school where he was a band director, and the sense of loss was truly felt from his students. He had given them so much, and never asked for anything in return.

Here is the article from the paper, that I got from a cached Google search.

We all love you very much Kael, and things just won’t be the same without you!

Kirbyville Man Dies In Louisiana Auto Accident

06/07/05 By Mike Lout Email this story to a friend Michael Kael Reeves passed away in a tragic auto accident in Louisiana on Monday. Officers with Louisiana State Police Troop D at Lake Charles said Tuesday that a Jasper County man died on Monday morning in a two vehicle auto crash in Allen Parish, not far from Reeves. The report said the accident occurred when a 1998 Ford sport utility vehicle driven by 29-year old Michael Reeves of Kirbyville for some unknown reason crossed the center line of US Highway 190 and crashed into the rear wheels of an oncoming 1990 Peterbilt log truck. Reeves, who was reportedly not wearing his seat belt at the time of the accident, was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the Peterbilt, 42-year old James Granger of Dequincy, was not injured. At last word, the official cause of the accident was still unknown and was being investigated by State Trooper Daniel Fontenot and Chris Cheramie