Well, WordPress is pulling some funky stuff on me today. This is my third shot at this post. Here goes.

I’m still processing, and grieving. I woke up to a message from our older son saying he and a few others are flying home this weekend to be with friends. They need to be together right now. I’m happy we’ll get to see him, sad it’s under these circumstances.

I met Luke when he was 5 years old. His parents had moved from back east so his father could take the job of Headmaster of a private liberal arts prep school here in Portland. They had moved into a pretty cool mid century home in a Portland suburb close to the school. They were going to be interviewed on a local morning talk show, at their house. Luke’s mom had enlisted the help of one of my good friends to style her and her house for the interview. My friend took me along for the ride as we had plans together directly after. My friend also had a five year old who was in class with Luke. The Pragmatist is the same age, but he did not attend private school at the time.

The job at the school didn’t work out for Luke’s dad, but the family stayed in Portland anyway and they kept Luke enrolled in the private school. The Pragmatist attended this school for High School, which is when he connected with Luke. It’s actually a very tight knit group as there were only 71 kids in the whole class. By Freshman year, sweet little Luke had grown into sweet, big Luke at over 6’ tall. By senior year he towered over most of the boys at 6’4”. Our families are pretty short so I’m intrigued by height. Luke grew fast and felt awkward as he towered over The Pragmatist and his friends who are more in the 5’7-5’8” range. When Luke was over to the house I always had lots of food on hand. He could never get full, and he loved my quiche. Well, he loved everything. One day I had made fresh labneh. Luke and the other kids gobbled it up with anything they could find including the fresh flatbread I had made to go with it. The next day I found Luke eating out of a clear container from the fridge and although it was white and in a similar container to the labneh, the labneh was long gone and Luke was actually just downing Blue Eyes cream cheese with crackers. He had no idea. When I told him, he said he thought it tasted different but he was just so hungry. So cute! Blue Eyes ALWAYS has bagels, cream cheese and lox in the house, so Luke switched to that.

Pretty much from the first month he started at high school, The Pragmatist was dating a girl from the class above him. When she went away to college, they agreed to split up and date other people. The Pragmatist dated a couple girls from his class, but was especially fond of one girl. They hung out all the time and had gone to the spring dance together, however, when it came time for the senior prom, he asked her if she would go with him and she said she would prefer to go with someone taller so she could wear heals… she being approximately 5’10” without heels and my son being his confident 5’7″ (at best). He was really take aback at what he considered her shallowness and their friendship was never the same after, however, she did wear heels and she did attend the dance with Luke. He and Luke became closer, after that, she and my son, no so much.

The below pictures are from my old personal blog archive from May, 2010. I had fun taking photos of the kids that day. I couldn’t find the originals on my computer (I’m sure they’re in a drive around here somewhere) so I had to grab these less than stellar quality versions from the old blog. These two pictures include just a portion of the kids I took photos of, however, Luke and The Pragmatist are in both. I find the bottom photo actually quite hilarious as our son (blue suit, yellow bowtie) is sitting next to the blonde that didn’t go to prom with him. Luke is on the other side of her. And yes, Max with dark curly hair to the left of Luke in both photos is even taller than Luke and he was The Pragmatist’s best friend for much of high school. Look at our kid… lol, he doesn’t look very happy next to her. I totally splurged on that Versace suit he’s wearing. All the kids in the photos + more will be home this weekend to remember Luke.

Thanks for listening. I’m finding talking it out is making me feel just a teeny bit better. Also the fact that it was an absolutely gorgeous day today is helping.