I recently heard of someone losing their child in a horrific car accident. Not their fault. Just wrong place at the wrong time. He was only 20. I often think about my loved ones when they are traveling or just living the day to day life and always hope they are well and protected.
I can’t imagine the feeling of having someone you love desperately pulled away from you when you least expect it. No time to say good bye or tell them how precious they are to you. Especially your own child. You see them grow and help them move through life trying to teach them to be happy and live their own life. And then you don’t.
Because in that brief instant they are gone. Your mind races thinking about what you should have done or what you should have said. You lay awake trying to make sense of a senseless act. You ask a higher power why you, why them and come up with nothing. No reason and no way to change what has happen.
Then you try to find a way to move on. To get on with your life even with such a void. Everywhere you look seems to remind you of that person and how much you will miss them. How your life will never be the same.
I have been so fortunate to not have to be in that position with anyone that close. I can only write about what it must be like and how it must feel. I have lost people close to me but I have had the time to say goodbye. It doesn’t make it easy but at least I had the luxury of saying what I wanted to say to them before they passed on.
But life is fickle and many times doesn’t seem fair. So in writing this I say to hold those who are dear to you tighter than usual. Because in an instant they can be gone. Take the time. Make the call. Hold them closer than you usually do. Even closer.