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I feel a small smile spread across my face as my eyes focus on his brown hair and slender build.
"MAC!" I call out as I run right into his arms to share a quick hug.
"Crystal! It's so great to see you!" He looks to the right to see a young man standing next to me. "Well…" he began with a knowing glint in his eyes, "is this him? Is this your man?!"
I can feel myself blush and I giggle lightly as I turn to Sven and introduce him as my boyfriend. MacLean then turns to him and says, "Sven, you had better treat this girl right!" his eyes meet mine and he continues. "Because she's a special girl, and she deserves the absolute best."
I smile lightly as we share on last hug, this one a bit longer than the one before. I had the strangest feeling inside, something I couldn't quite decipher. Almost as if God himself was trying to warn me that this was going to be the last hug that we ever shared together, like he was preparing me for the future only he knew was coming. We smiled once more at each other and then went our separate ways.
It was August 14, 2011, and I was at my friend's birthday party. I was sharing conversation and smiles with my friends when I looked at my phone and realized that I had several missed calls and a single text message from my best friend in California. That text message read "Call me as soon as possible. Something terrible has happened."
I felt my heart sink as a dangerous feeling washed over me. My hands began to shake with the adrenaline rushing through my blood as I hurried to dial my best friend's number. It rang a few times before she finally answered.
"Megan, what's going on?! What happened?!" I ask frantically.
There was a silence on her end of the phone before she finally spoke. "Do you remember MacLean?"
I felt my heart break as I remembered that last hug we shared, and that odd feeling that I had received as we said goodbye.
"Yes…" I replied hesitantly. "What happened to Mac?"
"Him and his family were flying their plane home from Idaho…and something…happened…and it crashed."
No. My mind rejected the obvious truth.
"But…they're okay….right? They are just in the hospital…." I could hear the desperation in my own voice and it's then that I realized I knew her answer even before she spoke it. She was silent for a while, not knowing how to speak the next few words.
"Crystal…." She paused again, and when she spoke again I could hear the quiver of the tears in her voice. "They are gone, the whole family is gone."
"No…" I whispered. "Oh god, Oh God, OH GOD" I began to shake as I fell to my knees and began to cry. "no, No, NO!
I laid on the ground sobbing and didn't know what to say or think. I didn't understand how or why this had to happen…
It wasn't until later that I received the rest of the details to the crash. The father was the pilot and it was only moments after they took off that the plane malfunctioned and crashed into the railroad tracks. It then slide into the street where it exploded. There were no remains of the Whittle family. The most heartbreaking part was that the grandparents of Maclean witness the plane go down. They saw the last few moments of their son, daughter in law, and grandchildren's life end.
It has been such a long year for so many, but this amazing family brought so many people together, and together we are making it through.

Whittle Family Obituary:

magicvalley.com/lifestyles/ann…