Tragic

Every summer, from the time I was 5 until I graduated from college, my mom, dad, my sister, and I spent time in Charleston, SC. We have family there, we have family friends there, Melissa went to College of Charleston for 2 years, and we still have old school friends and other assorted acquaintances there. Hurricane Hugo ranks right up there with 9/11 and the Challenger explosion in the realm of overwhelming historic tragedies that I have known in my lifetime. I have a special affinity for Charleston and I have always imagined I'd end up living there some day. I still plan to, at some point, so it is always with great interest and great affection that news from the Holy City makes its way into my daily life, offering me a little solace and a taste of the place and community that is so special and dear to me and my loved ones.

That is why the news of the 9 firefighters being killed in the sofa store warehouse fire yesterday has absolutely broken my heart. I have a real fear of people that I care about being injured/hurt/or killed on the job, as I have close friends who work in the construction business and, of course, the guys out there everyday on the side of I-40 here in Knoxville (um, yeah Will, that would be you). When I saw this on the news yesterday morning, I was just devastated. My heart absolutely goes out to the families and friends of those lost firefighters.