Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/301854
50 I told him the best I could manage that I had just gotten a call; that Wendell told me my son had died in an auto accident. I told John I needed his help getting on a plane. Without hesitation John said, ''you pack, get dressed and I will take care of getting you on a plane.'' I think I walked in circles for a few minutes, but I managed to get dressed quickly and off we went. We were headed to Memphis, but I had no idea where I was going or how to get there. John had called our company's emergency travel number and man- aged to get me on the first flight from LAX to Memphis, which was at about 5 a.m.. I had not flown into LAX and didn't realize that we would have an hour or so commute to the airport from our hotel. I remember being on the passenger side in the car while John drove quietly but quickly. We didn't have much traffic at 3 in the morning, so we got to the airport on time. I imagined to myself all kinds of things that must have happened, but I never really thought Bryant was 100 percent gone. I remember thinking it was possible he could be gone, but it was also possible that one of his friends had borrowed his truck and they found Bryant's wallet and only thought it was Bryant. Or maybe, I reasoned, my ex-husband, who had called my husband to tell him this dreadful news, just misunderstood and Bryant was seriously injured but not gone. I still have a hard time using the word ''dead," and you will read me referring to my son as passed or gone, not "dead." I cried some more; I couldn't quit. I called my best friend of 25 years who lived in Louisiana. I also called my friend Julie, and my friend Pam, but I couldn't call my sister, my mother or my daughter. I knew that my husband had called my sister and I remembered my husband telling me my ex-hus- band had already booked a flight for my daughter from Houston, but calling my mother would have to come from someone else. I just couldn't do it. I don't know why; I think hearing her pain on