Matters of the Heart

I would love to write a real mushy gushy post on here about how much I love my man, but you already know that.  What you do not know is that my heart is aching, heavy and hurting on this Valentine's Day.  I don't want to be a huge downer on here but we need prayers, huge prayers.  Let me give you a little history lesson.  When I was  little girl I joined a track (running) club, I started running competitively at 10 years old.  I would not say I loved running but it seemed to be my niche.  I hated practicing, running long distances and aching muscles.  I ran in Jr. High and eventually joined the High School track team.  I was a freshman, new to the team with alot to prove and not alot of confidence.  Enter my coach, Mr. Cole,  a soft spoken, gentle, kind man who had a warm heart and a simple grin.  He did not get riled up, I never saw him angry or ever heard him yell at any of us.  I kind of stayed under the radar my freshman year, the older girls got the good positions and relay teams.  I was a sprinter, I loved the 100, 200, 400 relay and 800 relay.  I somehow qualified for the regionals as a freshman, maybe Mr. Cole just put me there, that would be like him.  I ended up surprising everyone that day when I took third in the region, finishing in front of my team mates.  It was like I came out of  nowhere.  The next year I became a more important part of our team and got the good positions and got to be part of the relay teams, I was thrilled!  I went on to run all 4 years of my high school career and ended up winning the conference champ in the 100 for 2 years and also took 4th in the state for our relay team, we actually were a pretty successful team and as much as Mr. Cole could have bragged about us, he never did, he was a wonderful example of good sportsmanship. All of my success I owe to    Mr. Cole.  He encouraged me and molded me into becoming  a better runner than I ever imagined I would be.  I loved that man, everyone did. 
Last Saturday night we were at the local ice rink watching our friends play hockey and I noticed a display in the arena that had a photo of Mr. Cole and said he had been inducted into the Coach's Hall of Fame last October.  I saw his sweet grin and  knew that he was the one person I could not wait to see now that we are living back home. As odd as it sounds I really thought about helping him with the track team. 
You can imagine how devasted I was when last week my brother in law called to inform me that he had been out on a call the night before ( he works with the dive team for the police dept).  My breath literally stopped when he told me they were looking for Mr. Cole.   The weather has been just awful since we moved back, we had a blizzard last week and then bone chilling temps followed.  The wind chills were in the negative numbers. 
There is a long lake that turns into a river in our community.  This is the lake that my parents live on, where I grew up.  Mr. Cole lives at the north end of the lake near the river in a beautiful old home that I am sure he lovingly restored.  Apparently, Mr. Cole was going to look for his missing yellow lab, Joe, his truck was found running near the river bank, door still open and footprints slipping into the icy waters but none coming out.  They figured he was trying to get his dog out of the waters and he fell in himself.  No one is for sure what happened but there has been a huge search going on in our tiny community since last Wednesday and no sign of Coach.  He was also a shop teacher in our district and had recently retired, he is 62 years old and still runs marathons.  He is also still coaching track and cross country.  The man was loved in this community by everyone. 
Sadly,there is still no sign of him.  The searchers have been using divers, air boats, helicopters etc... and finally yesterday they found Joe's remains about a mile and a half from Mr. Cole's home on the lake, in the ice.  My heart cannot even fathom what his family is going through.  We just want closure and piece of mind for the family at this point.  Our lake is fed by a dam  and it is 11 miles long, the search is very difficult right now because the lake is frozen. 
 This weekend I found the little ear cuff that he had given me as a graduation present, it was a one of a kind metal flower piece in a silk oriental bag.  Such a precious treasure to me now.  I have been driving up and down the road that runs parallel to the lake and praying for him and his family.  Our little community is pulling together and volunteering to search, feed volunteers and pray.  That is about all we can do right now.  I am asking you to join us in the praying portion, we feel so helpless and want to find him so badly, he surely did not deserve to die this way.

One of the search crews.

People have said that he and Joe were always together.

My mind has hardly drifted to any other subject this past week, he is constantly in my thoughts  and prayers. The weather is supposed to be warming up this week so I pray that they find him soon now that the ice is shifting and melting.  I will keep you posted as soon as I find anything out, I just know you are all my little prayer warriors out there and we could really use them right now!  I know I am going to be holding on to my sweetheart even tighter this Valentine's Day.   

God Bless You Mr. Cole