Independence Day

I'm sure many of us can riffle through our memories and find our worst one ever. It's not very often that I purposefully do this, but today I wanted to briefly write about what happened 10 years ago today.
My family went up to Colorado to visit my grandparents for the Fourth of July. We had a nice time and then came home the next day. My parents routinely checked the caller ID, and instead of 4 or 5 missed calls, there were 100 or probably more. Most of the recent ones had come from my grandparents' house. My brother had been trying to get a hold of us all that day. We hadn't been home, and it was only much later (after we'd left) that he tried calling my grandparents' house. It turned out he was in the hospital.
My parents called him, and for the next hour or so, they talked with him and found out what had happened. I didn't want to hear it, so I unpacked the car, only hearing snippets of the conversation. I heard my dad start to yell something like, "I can't believe you'd do that! You know drugs are bad for you and could kill you!" and then my mom shushing him from the other room because now wasn't the time for that lecture.


 and took care of my brothers and sister, who were listening in on the phones in my parents' room with eyes wide in shock.