Challenger

I had totally faked sick that morning,  just so I could stay home and watch it...

I was laying on my Mom's antique white in the upstairs bedroom of our house on Hillock View Plaza, in Yorba Linda, the live news coverage had just begun on our band new 20 inch Zenith color tv......

******

I loved all things space as a kid...Astronaut and space posters hung on the walls of my bedroom, and I begged relentlessly to go to space camp in Florida...I was positive I wanted to be an astronaut...but the closest I ever got, was getting that Astronaut Cabbage Patch kid I had begged Santa for....

So that January morning, my eleven year old self mustered a believable fever and watch the live broadcast...

The fireball followed by the "Y" cloud took minutes to register...

They're gone....they're really gone...

Tears...

The first tragedy I will remember forever...

In that moment my Astronaut dream ended.

Until we moved to Canada this poster hug on my wall....

But embossed in white lettering in the corner was a quote from Ronald Reagan....

“We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them...as they prepared for their journey and waved good-bye and 'slipped the surly bonds of earth' to 'touch the face of God. ”

And I have never forgotten that morning I faked a fever or those astronauts.