Sadness can be a moment of shock and desperation. It can be scary, traumatizing and hard to cope with at times. The night came quickly as the darkness fell all around. The air was still summer warm when memories and dreams came crashing in around me. As I finally got to sit down in my bed and begin to grade papers and watch the television there was a soft hum of the air conditioner lulling everyone else to sleep. The phone rang mysteriously late and startled me into a jump. As I answered the call a sharp chill flashed through my body. The person on the other end had a slight quiver in her voice as she said we had news to discuss. The phone sprung from my hand and was in the cradle before I could blink. I am unsure if my feet ever really hit the floor as I rushed outside. The young man who had lived across the street for nearly a year, which had been the "big brother" to my kids, "little brother" to my husband and yet another one of my children to me, was gone! He was killed in a freak flying accident. I was crushed, my heart sank and tears streamed down my face like two small rivers as my heart hit the floor. Not him, why? The screaming inside me just couldn't stop. I was mad, frustrated, crushed, and sad all in a matter of about ten seconds, just a few hours before he had been to our house calling me mom and chatting about nothing in particular. Barely twenty-one he had already accomplished so much in his life. More than most eighty-year-old men have even thought about. He was, his own mother's first true love. Smart, handsome, and kind. The kind of "man" I hope my own boys grow to be someday. Smart, incredibly intelligent. Almost a college graduate inan area thatmost people like me can’t even relate to. Kind, he loved my kids as if they were his very own. He took them places and bought them presents. He held my daughter when she was just days old. He spent hours playing games with my kids as they were his siblings. Never missing a beat he loved them each specially and differently. Zach's life snatched out from under him like a rug. As all of these thoughts raced through my mind of him a sudden thought flashed to my mind. A five - year - old little boy lay sleeping in his bed. He would be crushed and heart broken. He thought the sun rose and set with Zach, and how would I ever tell him this and make him understand that this was God's will? I may never make him understand. All I could think of was my child and a young man, someone else's child bound for life by a bond no one else could possibly penetrate or replace.Zach loved many things, however his one true and most inspiring love was his love for flight. He was at peace when he was flying. His heart and mind truly calm and relaxed. He often shared that amazing love with my own son. Nickolaus, looked up to Zach in many, many ways. According to him Zach hung the moon. Even before we moved to our new house when Nickolaus was three, he had a love for planes and flying. When Zach moved in across the street it was like a magical connection between my son and a special friend he will always have in his life and memory. On our first Christmas at our new home, Zach bought Nickolaus an Air Hog pump up plane, they must have flown it together 5,000 times in the dead of winter. It made no difference how cold, early or late it was those two were going to fly that plane together. To this day Nick can see a plane before anyone else ever notices it, and he always says that Zach is sending him a message of hi when he sees a plane. Bound together by friendship, linked together forever by a love of planes, flight, and the freedom it gave them together. Zach was a young man of honor. His smile contagious, his laugh amazing, a soldier of freedom, a boy, a hero, a man, a person of success, memorable, a friend, a son. A young man who will always have a special place in my heart, his memory irreplaceable!