Remembering Sundan

 It was a very sad day the moment I heard from my friend Vicki Lee that her son-in-law, Sundan, had passed away in an accident. Sundan was married to Vicki's daughter Heather, who is a close friend to Cheryl. This was very hard news to hear! Our family and the Lee family are very close. Our children grew up together in Lancaster, CA. The ages of the Lee children matched up with the ages of our children so each of our kids had a friend in the Lee family, although Ryan and Suzanne weren't all that close. 

Ryan & Suzanne (3 months apart in age)

Eric & Ethan (5 months apart in age)

Jared & Brett (1 month apart in age)

Cheryl & Heather (1 month apart in age)

Kyle & Jared (14 months apart in age)

These friends of ours are so close that they are like family instead of friends, so when Sundan passed away, our hearts were broken. We came to find out that Sundan passed away doing something he LOVED to do - ride his motorcycle.

Heather was not in Arizona at the time of the accident. To get away from the hot Arizona summer, she and her three youngest children (Elise, Merrick, & Pyper) were vacationing in Idaho Falls, where her parents live. Sundan and their oldest son, Ryder, stayed in Arizona to work construction. In the evening of June 25th, 3 days after his 40th birthday, Sundan hopped on his motorcycle and headed out to meet up with friends to celebrate turning 40 years old. In a freak accident he lost control of his bike while leaving his neighborhood and was killed instantly.

I had the privilege of attending Sundan's funeral. Jared was visiting us here in Utah so he and I flew to Arizona together. Alan couldn't go because we had committed to taking care of Eric & Nicole's dogs while they were on vacation in Georgia. Of our immediate family, only Jared and Kyle were able to attend the funeral. 

We got Cheryl on the phone as the funeral began so she could listen to the whole thing. She wanted to attend in person, but her family was vacationing in Tennessee with the Stronk's so she couldn't go, but she did make a trip to AZ to support Heather right after Sundan's passing.

Sundan's funeral was one of the most unique and amazing services I have had the privilege of attending. After the family dinner but before the memorial service began, a weather storm warning alarm sounded on our cell phones that a storm was on the way. Arizona, along with other Western states, is in a drought right now, so rain would be a welcome sight, but the timing wasn't great. Right as the service started, the power went out, so the lights were dim and the microphone wasn't working. The speakers had to really speak up in order to be heard. Fortunately, someone produced a portable speaker, which really helped. Fortunately, the power came back on near the end of the service. We were grateful for that because the chapel was getting awfully hot!

I will write about one particular talk that was given in a separate post, but right now I will skip to what took place after the service ended. We were all invited to go outside where an honorary military ceremony would take place. By this time, the storm had mostly passed over but it was still sprinkling a little. As we all silently filed outside, we were greeted by the sound of bagpipes - something Sundan loved! Evidently, calls were made to 30 different bagpipe players to line someone up for the funeral but they were all already booked for the weekend. Thankfully, one guy's booking got cancelled, so he was free to play for Sundan's funeral. That was a miracle.

While the bagpipe player played "Caissons Go Rolling Along" - the Army's song - Sundan's bike buddies did an honorary parade in the parking lot. It was very moving!

While "Taps" was being played on the trumpet, the Army personnel performed a flag ceremony and presented the folded flag to Heather. It was very moving as well.

Next, the song "From Now On" from the movie "The Greatest Showman" was played. Sundan loved the music from that movie and this song was his favorite. I had never really considered before how appropriate the lyrics at the end are for a funeral - ".....and we will come back home, home again". I loved it! At some point, we will all be called back home again. Now was that time for Sundan.

As a grand finale, fireworks were set off as "From Now On" was being played. What a great final tribute to Sundan. The service was held on July 3rd, so fireworks fit right in with Independence Day weekend. It was amazing and I couldn't hold back the tears. By this time, the heavens had opened up again and it was sprinkling harder then before and people were getting wet, but nobody ran for cover. We all just stood there and reverently basked in the moment. I couldn't help but think about how in the movies it is almost always raining when they are having a graveside funeral service. It made me conger up images of the angels in heaven weeping. There were a lot of angels weeping that day.

Sundan served a few years in the Army and was very patriotic. This is one of the displays at the memorial.

Although it was under sad circumstances, it was fun to be reunited with the Lee family. We have seen many of their families separately over the years, but never when all of them were together.

The Stott & Lee boys