July 5, 2017

On July 5, 2017 Oakley headed off to work early and Rhett, Laiklie and I headed swimming with Yvonne up to Rexburg.  When we got there Yvonne asked me why Casie Hammer would be calling Chase to try and get ahold of Dallin that morning? Dallin was building grain bins with Ryan so it was confusing to me too.  She started to tell me that she had just heard that the Pugmire boy, Dallin's friend, had committed suicide early that morning.  Dallin isn't friends with any of the Pugmire boys and so we started putting pieces together all the while my head is swarming that one of the Pugmire boys would commit suicide.  It all came together when we realized the Dallin they were trying to get ahold of was Oakley's friend Dallin that works for Uncle Chase, not my Dallin.  It was Oakley's friend, Braydon Pugmire, that had committed suicide in the early morning hours on the 5th of July.  I then had to get ahold of Oakley and tell her. I started with a text saying, "have you heard anything about Braydon today?" She called me back immediately.  I could hear in her voice something was wrong.  She asked what was wrong with Braydon, I told her I didn't know.  She said, "MOM, WHAT IS WRONG??" I could hear the tears coming on her end of the phone and I choked them back as I told her that I had heard he had committed suicide.  She started to cry.  She told me that she woke-up this morning to a snapchat from Braydon that read, "I love you! I'm so sorry!" Braydon had sent out a snapchat to some of his best friends at some point in the night.  The next few days were full of so many tears and so many emotions.  Oakley gathered with her friends several times.  The day that it happened the Stake President gathered them and their parents at the church to visit with them.  The kids just clung to each other.  They stood and cried and hugged for hours afterwards, none of them wanting to leave.  It was like that for days.  The day of the funeral the stake center was PACKED! Braydon's mom asked for enough food to be prepared for all the youth to stay and eat afterwards.  She didn't want one teenager turned away! I was blessed to be able to help in the kitchen that day and watch from the sidelines.  My heart broke for Oakley and her friends.  She had a rough couple of weeks.  Even now, months later some days the tears come again.  We are grateful for the lessons learned through our trials.  Oakley has learned many from this.