Stay Safe: Chapter Twenty-One
What follows is a chapter from "Stay Safe: Life After Loss," a book that I wrote following the death of my brother, Robert James Reeves. Rob, only 14-months younger than me and 32 years old at the time of his death, was a Navy SEAL on the prestigious SEAL Team 6. On August 6, 2011, while on a mission in Afghanistan, he and too many of his teammates and other servicemen, lost their lives when their helicopter was shot down by enemy fire. It was the single largest loss of American life in the Afghan war. And because of the high profile nature of this event–being on the cusp of the Bin Laden mission and the number of those lost–my dad and I were part of many, many memorials and events, and the recipients of much outreach, and the point of contact for all those wanting to do something in Rob’s memory. This book chronicles the first month after his death. I am releasing a chapter a day starting August 5th as we mark the fourth anniversary of life without him.
I went to the office, this day the twelfth day after learning about my brother’s death. I really don't know why I thought this was a good idea. My brain wouldn’t allow me to concentrate on anything. I had a big presentation scheduled for Friday, so I built a slide presentation that reported on focus group research I had conducted on behalf of the client in the weeks prior to Rob’s dying. I actually like doing that kind of stuff; it is both intellectual and creative. But that day I struggled. My brain was mush.I had dinner with Misha and Duke, good friends that had been part of the crew that came to Shreveport for the service. Misha is originally from Shreveport, though we didn’t meet until we were both living in Little Rock and her husband, Duke, was working at the same ad agency where I worked. We had been friends now for many years. It was nice and quiet, which was such a change from the last week. I enjoyed being able to talk more intimately in a small group with people who know me well. I talked to them about the email exchange with R., hoping they could analyze what it meant; I talked to them about the events of last week and the anticipated events of the coming week. It was calm, quiet and much needed. I still felt like my head was in a bubble and I wasn’t seeing things clearly, but being with friends helped bring me closer to reality and stability than I had felt in days.
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