Last year around this time I experienced the loss of a loved one after his battle with cancer. I had time to prepare for this loss, to say my goodbyes.
This weekend my family experienced another loss. This time there was no warning, and I am reminded of how quickly everything about this life can change, and how little control I have over anything.
My cousin’s daughters were in a car accident on Friday night. Hannah, age 14, died, and her sister Bethany, age 16, is traumatically injured. Bethany’s eye socket is smashed, she has several skull fractures, her jaw is broken, and she suffered a deep gash that severed facial nerves. She has already undergone 14 hours of surgery to repair the damage.
As my sister, Jody, and I talked last night when she called to tell me the news, we lamented at the reality of grieving the loss of one while holding onto the hope of another. How do you make such critical medical decisions, how do you interpret all the information being given to you, how do you let go of one while at the same time fighting to save another? How does one grieve when still faced with so many uncertainties?
I often have nightmares of losing my children – mostly of losing my Ruthie. I wake up with a feeling of dread, horrified for a moment that it may have actually happened. Even after I’m fully awake I still fixate on the possibility of losing her, and the fear of such a loss knocks the wind out of me.
Please pray for my cousin, Bruce, his wife, Sharon, their daughter in recovery, Bethany, and their son, Ben, as Bethany recovers and as they mourn the loss of Hannah.
My heart goes out to you and your family. I’ll keep you all in my prayers. What an awful loss.