Sad Tidings

I'm not at my best today. Not only is it the anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing, which always makes me sad (particularly the images of the broken children brought from the rubble), but there was a tragedy in the extended family the end of last weekend. One of the hardest things I can imagine for any family - a cousin died out of the blue from an aneurysm. He was just ten years old.

I didn't know the parents or the child, actually, but I still grieve. It's the kind of experience I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. I know it's sad when anyone dies, but there's something particularly poignant about the death of a child that really gets to me.

I'm grateful to live when I do now instead of fifty, a hundred years ago, when parents could expect to lose a child, if not more than one. I am, but it still makes me sad that some don't make it, that children still die for whatever reason.

Unfortunately, that makes me poor company.

Hopefully, tomorrow, I'll do better.