IN MEMORY OF LIFE

Several weekends past The Princess attended a Sweet 16 party a few miles from our home.  Having the house to ourselves The King and I did what you ask?  We watched TV.  Our favorite show was interrupted with “Breaking News”.  There had been a fatal car crash involving four teenagers not more than two miles from our home.   Terror struck my heart, I immediately rang The Princess’s cell phone.  Those were the longest three rings of my life.  She answered, happy, healthy and dancing the night away.  Instantly, I felt both relieved and ashamed!  How was it possible that I could be so elated that it was someone else’s child had perished in that auto accident? 

The accident summary: Four teens in one car struck another car traveling in the opposite direction, three teens died in the crash and occupants in the other car were seriously injured. The teen driver lived. The driver was not drinking.  He took an unfamiliar curve a bit faster than was advised and swerved at the wrong moment into the other lane.

What do you say to these parents?  What do you say to classmates and friends of all four teens?  The devastation and heartbreak of the parents of the teens that died would be inconceivable to me as a mother.  Neither, can I begin to imagine the isolation and guilt the teen driver who survived would endure.  A suggestion, one word, REMEMBER.

Everyone will grieve the loss of these three young lives, we should all remember that they lived.  REMEMBER that one told the funniest jokes at lunch, REMEMBER one could spell any word in the dictionary, REMEMBER one could thought they could dance and proved it in the parking lot one day after class, and REMEMBER that one was always the first to lend a hand. 

Four REMEMBERS, right?  REMEMBER that although three lives were lost that night, one life remains with us and he needs us to REMEMBER that he is human.  REMEMBER TO FORGIVE.

Content borrowed from conversation with The Princess.