I felt like I could not put off telling my sons any longer, so I summoned up my strength and started making calls.  Scenes like this were always reserved for movies and it felt surreal. I facetimed with my oldest son, Jake, first. He took the news gravely and made an immediate plans to fly home with his girlfriend of 18 years, Krista.  

Taking another deep breath and focusing on staying in control, I contacted  my middle son, Brenden,  who had a new bride and an even newer baby at home. He was sad but very, very tired and also pledged to do whatever he could to help me through this.  

When I reached out to my youngest son, Zach, he could not  or would not speak. Instead, he gazed at me with glazed over eyes filled with tears and said nothing. After a few minutes, I found myself trying to console him which is something I was not able to do.  My own emotions were still so raw, so we soon hung up. Three days later, he called to say that he and his girlfriend, Caro,  would be coming to help me. He apologized for the time gap but said he needed time to process.  All three sons made immediate plans to fly in to see me and help Hans however they could.