Body found after garage fire - Sturgis, MI - Sturgis Journal

Body found after garage fire - Sturgis, MI - Sturgis Journal.

On my way to work yesterday morning, I was listening to the radio and heard that there had been a fatal fire in the 69000 block of Elaine Drive in Sturgis. No names were being released pending notification of family. Well, the day before my father had had cancer surgery in Kalamazoo, and was at home in his house in the 69000 block of Elaine Drive. I immediately starting calling both house and cell phones but got no answer. I have never felt so helpless in my life. What should I do? I had business meetings all day long, but I had no way of knowing if my parents were okay or not. It was a horrific feeling. And I was at a loss to do anything about it. Making a split second decision to let business go for the day, I headed to my parents to make sure all was okay. Thank God, for us, it was. But for my parents' best friend and next door neighbor, life will never be the same. Her son's unidentifiable body lay in the burned out hull of the garage near what had been the front door. There were -- and are -- rumors flying everywhere about the cause. She will be haunted forever. Please say prayers for Jeff and his mom.

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Life happens -- no matter what you plan, life has a way of sneaking in on you and making it's own plans. There's no way that I could have ever predicted anything like what happened above, yet it did. But even though the world was a sadder place yesterday for people on Elaine Drive and the Messer family, the sun still came up and it was a beautiful day. The world continued spinning on its axis. And so we all do too. I think that's a good thought for small business owners at the moment. Life has given us some twists and turns that we have not planned; yet the world still revolves and life goes on.

We don't always get what we're hoping for in our businesses, but that doesn't mean we should just give up. We need to keep on going, and following our goals and our plans. A book I'm reading right now tells us that when we get on an airplane we know that we're going to get to our destination safe. But did we know that for 90% of the airtime, the plane would not be actually on target but would need to be relined over and over again to keep us on track? That's what we need to do with our businesses as well. There will be many zigs and zags along the way, but if we keep our goal in mind, we will arrive at our destination. There may be bumps and bruises, but we will get there and the victory will be all that much sweeter!

Never give up!