When The Anthoines Visit The Georgia Coast…

… bad things happen.

Jason and I have spent a lot of time on the Georgia coast, namely St. Simons Island and Sea Island.

We love it so much there we even got married there! (Look at me, I’m such a BABY!)

We’ve celebrated anniversaries, stayed for Georgia/Florida games, even spent a week at Sea Island the week after Charlie was buried in the most blinding pain and heartache ever.

Times there have been both happy and sad.

But when we’re there? Bad things tend to happen to other people.

In fact, it got to the point where we would make sure that my dad didn’t fly his place while we were on vacation or my sister’s family didn’t travel while we were at St. Simons. They laughed, but I’m SURE we saved their lives 1000 times over.

Think I’m kidding? Read on.

It all started way back when I was a nanny on St. Simons. It was the year of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. I had a chance to go to the Olympics with the family I nannied for, but opted to stay back and hang out on the Island. I had had a very funny feeling in my gut all along about the Olympics and felt like I’d be safer at the beach than there. My gut was right. Eric Robert Rudolph decided Atlanta’s Olympics would be a great place to set off a freaking pipe bomb.

That same summer, while I was in St. Simons, TWA Flight 800 exploded and crashed over the Atlantic Ocean. On the plane was a young woman my age (20 — at the time) from Macon who went to a rival high school. It was heartbreaking for a million reasons. I think that was the first time I realized that I was *this close* to being an adult and that things like this would start to impact my life and potentially impact people I know.

During our wedding week in 1998, the fastest woman alive, Florence Griffith-Joyner died at age 38 from epilepsy.

We were vacationing in St. Simons, at the Queen’s Court, in July of 1999 when John F. Kennedy, Jr and his wife Carolyn and her sister were killed when his Piper Saratoga crashed off Martha’s Vineyard.

Later that year, on Halloween weekend, we would tempt fate by going back to St. Simons for the Georgia/Florida game. PARTY TIME, Y’ALL! Well, until EgyptAir Flight 990 crashed. Families of 217 people were forever changed that day when the plane crashed off of Nantucket Sound.

Believe me now? Seriously, we’re trouble.

There’s more!

In August of 2001, R&B singer Aaliyah, whose songs I cannot name, died in a plane crash coming back to the US from The Bahamas. At 22 years old, a very bright and talented young woman was killed along with 8 other passengers.

The trip to St. Simons was an interesting one in April of 2002. It was like the trifecta, y’all.

1. Our first pregnancy was conceived. (I would find out on June 13 that there was no heartbeat)
2. Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes died in a car accident in Honduras. At age 30, after being part of the awesome TLC and making waves by setting fire to Andre Rison’s shoes and burning down their mansion that they bought with their bazillion dollars, Left Eye went out in a crash in (of all things) a Mitsubishi. I mean, it would sound better if it was a Lamborghini or Ferrari, right? Anyway, sad days for the CrazySexyCool fans of Left Eye.
3. My Grandaddy died. I remember where I was sitting on the beach at Sea Island when my phone rang. I knew it was coming and my mom didn’t even have to say anything when I answered. I had told him before we left (Jason was speaking at a conference) that I loved him and that it was ok for him to go before I came back. Put the whole Left Eye thing in perspective, huh?

We know there have been other crazy things that have happened but it’s been a while since we’ve doomed anyone by being at the Georgia Coast.

Until Jason went camping with some guys last weekend at Sapelo Island. Dang if Whitney Houston didn’t up and die while he was there. I texted him to tell him and the only thing he said was, “Well, I AM at the coast, so somebody had to die.”

The moral of this story I’m telling you today is this:

Don’t fly or drive or leave the bed when the Anthoine Family is at St. Simons, Sea Island or anywhere near the Georgia coastline. Your life could be in danger.