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It started about 7:30 last Friday.  My friend called, "Don't panic, but a boy was hit by a bus up at the high school, he may have been killed".  She's telling me this because it's the school that The Nephew goes to, and on the right day, under the right circumstances, it could have been him.  But not Friday. No, on Friday he was going to New York with the band, and he gets a ride daily from a neighbor, so I wasn't concerned that it was him.  It bothered me, and brought me to tears many times that morning that someone had lost a life. 

 As the morning went on and the story unfolded, the facts about the accident trickled out. The ultimate truth is that someone's beautiful baby girl was killed at 7:05 am, in what can only be described as a freak accident.  A 15 year old girl, bright, thoughtful, a second degree brown belt, an accomplished young girl with hopes and dream was stripped of her future.  A family was shattered, a bus driver is shattered.  Her family will never forget their beautiful girl, and will spend every day for the rest of their lives thinking of what they are doing that day that she will never get to do again.  That bus driver will spend every day for the rest of her life seeing the aftermath of that accident, as will the 20 children that were on that bus.  

Today is the funeral.  I am taking The Nephew because he knew the young girl who died.  I have no business going.  I didn't know her.  But I cannot let him go to this without an adult to make sure he is ok, so I am making it my business.  The family was smart.  The burial is private.  They need and deserve that.  Most of us are allowed to deal with tragedy privately.  This family's played out in the media and text messages and awful posts on news webpages.  The wake was long and I am sure unbearable.  It took us three hours to get to the family and pay our respects.  And when we left, the line was as long as when we queued up.   

I couldn't help but think as we were leaving, how do they go on from here?  How do they go back to work?  How does the sister go back to school?  They changed the bus routes going to school and even put a counselor on the bus. It's a tragedy of immeasurable proportions.  Much as I have always said that everything happens for a reason, I am having a very hard time holding on to that right now.  

Join with me and pray that this family and the driver and the kids who have been hit by this find a way through this.  That they can move through it, absorb and move through it.  This is not something that is something to get over.  It will always be there for these people.  Pray that this young lady is an angel for her sister and that her sister finds a positive path through this.  It's so unfair and awful, but it is.