A Blue Week
Six people in six days. Six tragic deaths in a town of 20,000, where we often know the people who die. My daughter's friend's mother. A 17 year old on an ATV. A girl my oldest son and daughter knew, who drowned in the river.
When I walked the dog down by the river last night, there was a group of her friends gathered on the bank, by a little memorial cross with a balloon tied on and flowers placed round. All together, maybe a dozen of them, standing or squatting by the river, gazing out over the water.
Just as I was writing this, my oldest daughter called from Vancouver. She was upset, because she hadn't realized until just now that it was her friend Paula who had drowned. Paula, whose borrowed by never returned shoes still sit in my daughter's closet. Somehow I had confused her when I called to break the news to her, and she had thought it was one of Paula's sisters who had drowned.
This morning we have a memorial service for my youngest daughter's friend's mother. Such difficult circumstances. Lives changed forever in a split second, in one momentary lapse. The sort of lapse we have all had, more times than we can keep track of, but we haven't had to suffer consequences.
Such is the world we live in. It won't always be like this, and that is our hope. But for now, we're stuck here in this realm with all the suffering.
[Updated to add: I learned this morning that the nice little group by the river later turned into a bit of a raucous party by the river. A party that the RCMP had to break up. More evidence, I guess, of the fallenness of our world.]
When I walked the dog down by the river last night, there was a group of her friends gathered on the bank, by a little memorial cross with a balloon tied on and flowers placed round. All together, maybe a dozen of them, standing or squatting by the river, gazing out over the water.
Just as I was writing this, my oldest daughter called from Vancouver. She was upset, because she hadn't realized until just now that it was her friend Paula who had drowned. Paula, whose borrowed by never returned shoes still sit in my daughter's closet. Somehow I had confused her when I called to break the news to her, and she had thought it was one of Paula's sisters who had drowned.
This morning we have a memorial service for my youngest daughter's friend's mother. Such difficult circumstances. Lives changed forever in a split second, in one momentary lapse. The sort of lapse we have all had, more times than we can keep track of, but we haven't had to suffer consequences.
Such is the world we live in. It won't always be like this, and that is our hope. But for now, we're stuck here in this realm with all the suffering.
[Updated to add: I learned this morning that the nice little group by the river later turned into a bit of a raucous party by the river. A party that the RCMP had to break up. More evidence, I guess, of the fallenness of our world.]
posted by Rebecca Stark at 6/26/2004 08:46:00 AM
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