Gone Too Soon

Today has had a very somber theme for me: Gone Too Soon. As we get older we find more and more instances of those that were taken at an age that is not a traditionally acceptable age for death. My first encounter with this tragedy was when an older student died in a car wreck when I was a freshman in high school. Later that some year, a classmate of mine lost her fight with cancer. As sad as both of those were, I didn't know the first student so once the black ribbons disappeared there was no real change in my day to day life, and the second student had been battling cancer for quite some time before her death so it couldn't really be considered a surprise. Both were horrible tragedies, don't get me wrong, and I honestly believed that both would be the closest-hitting young death that I would encounter.

Unfortunately, I was proven wrong just two years later. A girl that had been one of my best friends through elementary and middle school, and even up until ninth grade. Even after we grew apart, we stayed friends, text-ing and IM-ing at random times to catch up on what was going on in each others lives. I can still tell you exactly what happened the day that I was called out of my first period class so that my dad (who was working with the Sheriff's Office at the time and had been called to the scene) could tell me that my friend had been killed in a car wreck on her way to school. She was pregnant at the time and had just started turning her life back around, finally having things start to look up for her again. Today would have been her 20th birthday. Visiting her grave to place flowers there in her memory was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. I wish with all I have that I could have been calling her up to tell her happy birthday instead. Or even better, giving her a huge hug.

Now there is a girl that I graduated with that found out today that her older sister was murdered. I have no way of even fathoming what her family must be going through. However I do know that their pain will ease. God has a plan. We don't know what that is right now, but over the course of time it will be revealed to us. I only hope that that knowledge can bring them some kind of hope. It will without a doubt be the hardest Christmas season for them, but with God's help they will make it through.

The statistics for this blog tell me that people are reading this, so I am asking one thing of my readers: Pray. Pray that this family will find comfort. Pray that justice will be carried out. Pray that God's Will will be followed. Basically, just Pray.

Your Fellow Water Walker,
Ashlee

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding"
Proverbs 3:5