On this Tuesday morning my mind and heart grapple with the sadness and loss of the weekend just passed. Judy a vibrant, smiling, happy and loving wife, mother, grandmother, friend and colleague went to bed Saturday night not knowing her life would end the next day. Shock , disbelief and fear hit us like a huge wave and bring us to our knees reminding us of the fragility of all our lives. I can not even imagine what her family and close friends are going through as they come to terms with this cruel reality. To never see her smile or hear her voice , to never have her arms reach to cradle her precious grandchildren, to never hear her laugh around the fire or feel her welcome greeting when you enter her home. My heart breaks for Gerald her loving husband , a team that showed how blending a family is done. Her co-workers are mourning her loss and feeling the emptiness she leaves at her workplace. Her friends are lost and devastated.Everyone who knew her has lost something in her passing.Her beautiful daughters who carry her smile and her warm and caring ways must find their way without her. Her handsome son must carry on without her at his side. Shock and disbelief that she is gone is what we all have in common. Three young men gone leaving their families and friends reeling from that tragic truth . Three young men gone and reminding every parent of the terror a Saturday night can bring. Three young men gone and this mother’s heart knows the pain and the terrible truth of just how tragic that is.The terrible loss that their community is facing is a truth the family will never forget , never move on from , never stop feeling to their very core.The first hours days and weeks will be so excruciating and they will somehow find their way through. Then each family will embark on the life long task of living without Ty, Kobe and Denver. And two men drove off the end of a ferry into deep water. The circumstances or reasons will probably never be known but they will leave behind those who loved them and mourn for them. Sadness and loss make up the fabric of our lives and touch us all. The losses of this past weekend are only a wave in the vast sea of sadness and losses people deal with every day. No easy way to come and go from this life.No easy way.
