Brad & Angie Schumaker Family

Tragedy hit our home… God called his daughter, and our friend, mother, wife, aunt, co-worker, Angie, home to be with Him in Heaven, and it hurts like Hell. He eventually calls all of us… but it seems this time, it was just too soon. From the moment we heard the news, to the moment we laid Angie to her final resting place – family, friends and even complete strangers showed their love by doing anything and everything we could for Brad and the boys.

As Angie drove to work in a cold January rain, oncoming headlights and her life flashed before her – and without warning, or time to prepare, she was gone.

Angie leaves behind a husband and four sons… The Schumaker Boys. I honestly can’t imagine what that feeling must have been like for Brad when he received the initial call. And as he raced out to the accident site, the feeling he had when the EMT gave him the devasting news. He told me he stood in the rain, numb; trying to process everything. And though he told, I still can’t imagine… Then came the task of going home, to tell his boys that their mom, would not be coming home.

There is no playbook for this kind of tragedy. This is not supposed to happen. However, we know it did. Brad coach’s basketball for our hometown high school, and he is damn good at it. He even found the courage to coach his team in the midst of this all. In all the locker rooms I‘ve ever been in, the hundreds of pre-game speeches I’ve listened to, there is nothing that has ever compared to, or has come close to the courage of Coach Schumaker finding the strength or the words to do what he did… and continues to do every day for his boys, on and off the floor.

Our hometown, the Ottawa Glandorf community pours love and support into the hearts of those in need unlike anywhere else in the world. We take care of our own. And expect nothing in return. I’ve been blessed to live in many places, and not one of them compares to O-G. Period.

Can there be a silver lining of a tragedy like this that rips a mother away from her husband and four young children?  I’m not sure. It’s too soon… But I do know there is no other place that I have ever been, where it might be possible to find one. Growing up in the Ottawa-Glandorf community, and being raised with small town values at our core has produced good men and women. Men and women who continue to raise families in our community, and men and women who drop everything and return to our community when something like this happens. As the dust settles and Brad and the boys find their new routines, undoubtedly those routines will come with memories of Angie. Many of them wonderful, happy memories of the beautiful and caring mom she was. As the boys go forward, so come the unthinkable new challenges of financial burdens, family meals and everything else that four boys between the ages of four and twelve need.

As our friends gathered with Brad during this heart-wrenching time, we asked him what we can do. And all he asked of us was to tell our families we love them and to go be with them. He assured us that it was going to be ok.

There is nothing we can do to bring Angie back, but we can show up as often as we can, and do whatever we can.  So, whether you are reading this and can go be with your family and hug them, please do. You truly never know when it could be the last time you see them.  If you can donate a few bucks to the boys go-fund me page, thank you; it is all very much appreciated. Maybe you are a person who prays, that helps too. Whatever it is we take away from this tragedy is up to us. But one thing for certain, Love, at some point in our lives, will bring us Home.

Rest in Peace, Angie. We love you, and your Boys.