Til Eternity, My Friend

Many of you know what an intertwined relationship my family has with the Patterson family. From the moments Kelly and I first drew breath on this earth, we have been a part of that family and they of ours.

My dad and Dr. Doug Patterson have been best friends since grade school in Mobile, Alabama. They went to University of Montevallo together; they did ROTC together; they were fraternity brothers; they went to Vietnam together after they commissioned as active duty Marine Corps officers together.

When my dad went to be president of the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind, Dr. Patterson was his vice president. We grew up with their children - Lauren (their middle daughter) is my sister's lifelong best friend. They are like our siblings.

When we moved to Troy, AL in 1989, the Pattersons came too: he became vice chancellor while my dad was chancellor at the University. My parents were at the hospital when their oldest, Chris, and then Lauren and Natalie were born, and vice versa. There hasn't been a moment of my life that the Patterson family hasn't had an incredible presence, and I love them as if we shared the same blood. We lived within miles of each other. We played together. We vacationed together. We love each other.

About a month ago, Chris (who is several years older than I am) went on a cruise. While on vacation, he got sick. He tried to be seen by the doctor upon his return but the doctor kept encouraging him to treat the fever at home. The fever broke and he began feeling better, but only temporarily. He relapsed and was admitted immediately and placed into ICU.

For 3 weeks, Chris was on a ventilator, under heavy sedation and prayed for. His family rallied around his bedside and became prayer warriors for Chris. Natalie was able to come home from Florida State University, where she's a 2nd year law student and Lauren was able to make it home just less than a week ago from Ecuador where she's a professor.

We thought we had lost him last Sunday when his blood oxygen level dipped into the 30th percentile. But Chris came back and regained a 100% blood oxygen level the next day. They thought he might be coming out of the woods. We truly believed a miracle was taking place in his healing journey.

During his stay in ICU, he developed double pneumonia and ARDS. He also had 1/5 documented cases of Swine Flu (H1N1) that caused blood clots. The doctors had a terrible time trying to balance thinning his blood with treating the pneumonia.

My parents decided to come on out to Louisiana for Thanksgiving after going to Columbus, GA to see Chris and realizing he might be on the upswing. So we enjoyed a wonderful holiday but continued to cover Chris in prayer as a family from afar.

On Friday, 27 November, my family took me out for a delayed birthday celebration. When we returned to my and Dan's home, we got the call that Chris's blood oxygen level was below 10% and dropping. Within 10 minutes, Chris passed away leaving his family and so many people who loved him deeply with broken, shattered, shocked hearts. Yesterday (Saturday), we woke up and packed the cars and left for home as soon as possible.

Christopher Clarke Patterson was one of a kind. He was so much like his mom, Mrs. Lise: blonde, tall, handsome, quiet, funny. He was a man of few words but when he spoke, you listened and usually laughed. My first crush was on Chris when I was about 7 years old!

There are no words to explain the depth of pain that his precious family is experiencing right now. Everyone prayed SO HARD for Chris and we were confident he had pulled through. But we have to remember that God's ways are always higher than our ways. Yet that never makes the pain of losing a loved one more bearable. Never.

Tomorrow is Chris's visitation and Tuesday will be his funeral and burial. His funeral will be in Troy but they will bury Chris in Birmingham next to his grandfather who he adored and resembled so very much. We will bury a son, a brother, a friend, a great, great, great man who is gone long before we all thought it was time. This is so unnatural: parents are never supposed to bury their children.

Our world - for those of us who knew and loved Chris - is very sad right now. There is a pain surrounding all of us that will not soon depart. Even if you didn't know Chris Patterson, I ask you all to please pray for his mom and dad and sisters, Lauren and Natalie. It is their hearts that are truly breaking now and will break for days, months and years to come.