Yesterday I stopped behind a queue of about five cars in our village wondering what the hold up was. When I saw people running back down the street, two of them young girls in tears, I feared the worst as we were on the approach to the cross roads where the school children gather on their way home. A lady who had been near the front drove back down the line stopping to tell us that a child had been knocked over so we all started to turn around one by one. As I drove back the way we came, hearing the approaching sirens, I flagged down the oncoming traffic to tell them to stop and go back too, all the while, my little girl in the back asking questions that I didn't know how to answer.
The local radio news at seven this morning woke me confirming our worst fears that a twelve year old boy had been killed at the crossroads.
Before becoming a parent, I don't really remember how I responded to situations such as these. I'm now all too painfully aware of the sick, shaky feeling in my stomach every time I think about the parents who are left behind and how they ever find the strength to carry on after losing a child. I'm aware of how I want to cuddle my daughter to me every second of the day and tell myself that I must fight the urge to wrap her up in cotton wool when it comes to things like walking to school one day. I'm aware that I remember again the feelings I had two years ago when we were first on the scene when a little girl was knocked down and killed outside my mother in laws house.
Every parent hopes that they never have to think how they would react if it were them and every parent understands exactly what I'm talking about.
Equally, I'm sure that we have all at one time or another cursed the person in front of us who is sticking rigidly to the speed limit or taken our attention off the road for a split second to listen more carefully to what our kids are babbling about in the back. I know I have, but after placing a second bunch of flowers to mark the spot where a precious life has been lost, I vowed never to again.
Posts
6 comments:
that is so sad, and as a fellow parent I unfortunately know how you feel. i wish is could just put him back safe in my belly and carry him around forever.
Such a sobering post.
Thanks for reminding us what is most precious.
That is such awful news and a horrendous thing to witness, nevermind trying to imagine what that poor family are going through. It certainly makes you hug your loved ones that bit longer when you hear news like this. Big hugs to you, OH and SC too.
How horrifying for those poor parents. I really don't know how anyone does it - to carry on after such a tragedy. If only we could protect our children from everything out there...
I get to hear just the worst stories working on a newspaper and even after all these years I never find it easy to hear.
I too can't remember how I would react to news like this before I became a parent, but like you, I get that sick feeling when I think about how those parents that are left behind must feel.
I don't ever want to know how they feel.
You know that life would just be existing from then on in if you lost your child
Post a Comment