{"id":689,"date":"2025-09-15T08:14:54","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T13:14:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifebeyondcrafts.com\/?p=689"},"modified":"2026-06-07T12:14:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T17:14:12","slug":"12-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jeniferbenner.com\/life\/12-years-later\/","title":{"rendered":"12 years later…"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Twelve years ago today, my family\u2019s life was forever changed. My parents-in-law were tragically killed by a drunk driver while they were on their motorcycle coming home from an event. It\u2019s still hard to wrap my head around. One moment, they were on their way home. The next, they were gone \u2014 because of one reckless choice.<\/p>\n

When something like this happens, it doesn\u2019t affect just one person. It ripples through entire families and communities. For us, it\u2019s been twelve years of missing holidays, laughter, everyday moments, and milestones. This year is especially bittersweet \u2014 they would have been meeting their 4th great-grandchild this coming March.<\/p>\n

I share this not to bring sadness, but to raise awareness. Please, don\u2019t drink and drive. Call a friend. Use a ride service. Make a plan. Anything is better than leaving a family shattered by a decision that can\u2019t be undone.<\/p>\n

My business is about crafting, connection, and community \u2014 but part of that is also sharing real life. And real life isn\u2019t always neat or pretty. But it matters. If even one person rethinks their choices because of this post, then honoring their memory in this way will have made a difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Twelve years ago today, my family\u2019s life was forever changed. My parents-in-law were tragically killed by a drunk driver while they were on their motorcycle coming home from an event. It\u2019s still hard to wrap my head around. One moment, they were on their way home. The next, they were gone \u2014 because of one … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":691,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeniferbenner.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeniferbenner.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeniferbenner.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeniferbenner.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeniferbenner.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jeniferbenner.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":864,"href":"https:\/\/jeniferbenner.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689\/revisions\/864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeniferbenner.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeniferbenner.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeniferbenner.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}