A Traveler's Charm

I don’t always believe in God, but I’m starting to believe in dead friends watching over you. We wanted to get married on Saturday, June 25^th, 2016 but our friend and photographer, Mark Andrew, had another wedding booked on that day. With the big day being a year and a season away, we were able to move the date. We wouldn’t budge on location, though. Iceland was our paradise. Brian, Mark Andrew, and our two friends, Edward and Kevin braved weather winter storms, made friends with locals, scared each other silly at a witchcraft museum, had a run in with the cops, stripped down to our skivvies on a glacier, and experienced a marriage proposal under the neon green northern lights. Well, I experienced a marriage proposal. Brian proposed. Mark Andrew, Edward, and Kevin bore witness.

Six weeks after our little crew braved a snowstorm on a mountainside of a foreign country halfway around the world, the story goes that Mark Andrew was skateboarding on his street in sunny San Diego, a hobby that he’s done for years, looking for his dog. There’s a gap in the story at this point. The next piece of the story goes that a neighbor saw Mark Andrew on the ground and called the ambulance. He had a head injury of some sort…? I remember hearing that he had 1% brain activity. “Oh good,” I thought, “so there’s still a chance.” I didn’t know that 1% brain activity meant that there is no chance.