I Love You and Goodbye

I am writing this only 2 weeks from when the event happened and have been somewhat emotional since that time...please take that into consideration while reading this.

I am a 23 yr. old mother of two. My husband works 2nd shift on an assembly line, so he is gone from around 3pm until 1am every evening. Two weeks ago while loading the dishwasher, I peeked around the corner to make sure my children were okay while I was out of the room. Upon looking around the corner, I saw my step-father standing by the front door. It not being unusual for him to stop by occasionally to see the kids for a few minutes, I wasn't particularly surprised. I said hello and he went on to say that he just came by to tell the kids that he loved them and to give them a kiss. Thinking that was sweet, I watched as my 4 yr. old gave him a big hug and kiss and him bending over to smooch the baby on the cheek before leaving.
As I went on to continue the interrupted task of the dishes the phone rang. It was my step-sister saying that her dad, the same man who had "just been in my living room" had fallen off of a cherry-picker at work in his warehouse that afternoon and it resulted in a fatal head injury. Since I had been shopping all afternoon, I had missed all attempts by her and my mother to contact me to come to the hospital before he died. I went on to say that it wasn't possible because he was just here. My step-sister, who was crying, said that I must be mistaken because he died at 1:30 that afternoon and it being 6pm - well...it wasn't possible.

I know that he was here that night and have had a very hard time dealing with his death, as we were very close. The funeral was terribly hard and I had a particularly hard time believing that he was dead until I saw his body at the showing. I have said nothing again about seeing him that night to anyone for fear that it will only cause hurt to those who loved him, but I really believe that he just came to tell the step-grand-children that he loved as if they were blood related that he loved them.