The very beginning

It started on December 10, 2011.

That was the day that my husband, my mother and I went to a breafast with Santa with my almost four-year-old son, Joseph. We ate pancakes and bacon and took pictures of a happy little boy sitting on Santa's lap. We have pictures of him smiling as he snuggled with his Nanny and gave her hugs and kisses.

Later, we met my sister at our beautiful old town theatre to watch Disney's A Christmas Carol with her kids. Christmas was everywhere. So was the popcorn.

When we were done, we drove home. "What would you like for dinner?" "I don't know, what do you want to do?"

We felt bad that we had spent the day with my family, and left my father-in-law at home. We should go out to dinner, we decided, and take him someplace. The new restaurant! The one in the old hotel downtown!

We told him when we got home. He was excited and happy. He got dressed to go, found his hat, made sure he brought his cane.

Joseph ordered his own grilled cheese. Matthew and I ordered salads. My father-in-law, as usual, got cheese ravioli. We had a great meal. Lingered. We thought about dessert, but talked my father-in-law out of his pie so we could go home and get Joseph to bed. It was almost 8 p.m.

We should have had the pie.

I took Joseph outside and crossed the street to the car to buckle him in. Matthew brought the leftovers in their styrofoam boxes and put them in the back of the SUV.

That's where it all went wrong.

With both of us facing away, with Joseph buckled in and staring directly at his grandpa, we heard what our son was seeing. And we knew. Before we even turned to look, somehow, we knew.

When we did look back, we saw my father-in-law, broken and bloody on the ground. The windshield of the car that hit him was crushed like a glass spiderweb. He had bounced up the hood, into the glass, and when the car stopped, rolled down again and came to rest about ten feet in front of the vehicle. His glasses were broken. One shoe was off. The other was just gone. I'll never look at an odd, lone shoe on the side of the road the same way again.