– Carl Bidleman

Nine years ago this minute I was looking at this exact view.  While my wife Karen was somewhere out there on the horizon, hiking the perimeter of Convict Lake, my dog Buddy and I were sitting comfortably lakeside, nursing our bad hips.  I was preparing to have hip replacement surgery later in the month so I used this as an excuse to sit back, enjoy the quiet solitude, pull a couple cold ones from the cooler and continue reading Into Thin Air until Karen completed the loop.  To this day, I remember the contentment I felt at that moment.

What I didn’t know is that while I was enjoying this peaceful respite in the Eastern Sierra, life changed forever.  Upon my return home 24 hours later, I learned that at the very moment I was enjoying the alpine splendor of Convict Lake, a Ford 150 pickup blew a stop sign on a northern Michigan back road and killed my mother, Florence Bidleman, younger brother, Craig Bidleman, sister-in-law Tina Bidleman, and niece Dana Bidleman.  Only my seven year-old nephew, Brandon Bidleman survived.  They were heading to the Straits of Mackinac to see the July 4th fireworks. (I include their full names here because they didn’t live for much of the online era and Google returns few results when their names are searched.  I want to make sure people know they were here.)

I’m going to watch the fireworks in Sausalito tonight with Karen and Buddy’s heir, Jack the Dog.  But the holiday has never been the same.  I find myself telling everyone I know to enjoy a SAFE holiday. I’m happy to say my 16 year-old nephew is morphing into an incredibly fine young man.  A real tribute to the influences of his mom, dad, sister and grandma.

I’ve only been back to Convict Lake once.  It is still indescribably beautiful but a far more melancholy place for me these days.  My thoughts on this holiday are with families who are about to live this same experience.  Please drive carefully.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 4th, 2009 at 3:27 pm and is filed under California, Carl Bidleman's Blog, Photo of the Day. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.