How Could Such a Bright Light Be Gone?

I was on a Zoom call to my cousin and his wife in Australia.  8:00 PM Saturday night in New Jersey - 12:00 PM Sunday afternoon in Melbourne.  All of a sudden, my phone lit up with my son’s picture.  Jake is calling?  Is he ok?  What’s wrong?  He had joined our Zoom call from college and had left us ten minutes ago to go get ice cream with friends.  


I answered the phone quickly, and he told me to move away from the Zoom camera. Now my mom senses were heightened.  What is going on?  Are you ok?  Did something happen?  I literally jumped away from the computer and left my husband on the call.   


Jake told me that a friend he had known since second grade had died.  Died.  What happened?  No other information.  The friend was gone.  How could that bright light be gone?


I had spoken to the friend's parents earlier in the week, and we had caught up on all of our kids’ news.  Where they are...what they are doing...what we were looking forward to this summer.  And now their child was gone.   My heart ached for them.  My brain tried to imagine what they were going through, but two seconds of those thoughts were too painful.  How do you go on after a tragedy of such proportions?


I have been consumed with thinking about them all day.  My thoughts are followed by questions.  Lots of questions.  In reality my questions are so very unimportant.  A family lost their child.  It doesn’t matter how or when or where.  Excruciatingly painfully and slowly, their lives will go on.  Their lives will go on, but their child's will not.  How could that bright light be gone?


Lesson Learned: Hug your kids. Spend time with them, and always tell them that you love them.

Comments

  1. MaureenMarch 14, 2021 at 5:10 PM

    "A family lost their child." There is nothing more devastating, there is nothing one can really say or do that makes this pain go away. You will help them grieve, remember the light this dear person gave to the world. I am so very sorry for you, your son, this friend's family, everyone.. Devastating.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Betsy HubbardMarch 14, 2021 at 6:30 PM

    So painful and your repeating line so true. How does this happen? How do bright lights leave us? But it is true, life goes on, a life after. I hope you are able to offer comfort to your son, the family, and yes, hug your kids.

    ReplyDelete

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