The greatest tragedy is for a parent to bury a child. there is nothing worse..
Agreed. I feel for her - and I don't even have kids. She sounded very devoted to Teddy.
And the older son is amazing. He had the presence of mind to call his mother right away. She knew the plane had crashed before the staff at the airport knew. He was able to pull his father out of the wreckage before he went into shock. He was very quick-thinking. If he hadn't acted so quickly, Susan St. James would be mourning the loss of her husband and two sons.
He was my best pal and a wonderful human being. He was completely healthy and funny and caring and kind and mature beyond his years and very handsome.
You look at your child as the light for the future. You have dreams he will be everything his heart desires and will have happiness and success.
He can't die.
It's impossible...and then..
he does.
It is a sword to the center of your soul. You're cast into the valley of the shadow of death. It is full immersion in Hell. It is a nightmare from which you cannot awaken.
Every trail you rode with him is a trail of your endless tears. His closet full of clothes...his room as he left it...his saxophone now silent...taunt you and haunt you.
His friends graduate without him. The first girl he ever liked moves on. You are a man who seldom cried and now you can't stop. You want to simply lay down and die. Someone has reached into your innermost heart of hearts and punished you. They stole from you something more dear than your own life.
Tear my limbs from my body. Gouge my eyes out. Cut off my tongue. Throw me into a furnace.
Just send back my dear son.
Then, one day, you remember something you read. King David, in the depths of despair over the death of his dear son Absalom, saw a glimmer of light. "He cannot come back to me but I can go to him."
He's there and I'll be joining him...soon enough.
There is a God and he didn't hurt me like this as punishment for something. Who can worship a God who kills children to punish the parents? He wouldn't. He didn't. He will make it right again.
He quietly told me there will be a happy ending and he sent his only Son to insure it.
It's made the difference.
There is no pain suffered in this life which cannot be healed for those in faith who cling to Jesus Christ.
I came back from the wretched valley of despair and I am climbing the trail. I stop occasionally to look at the shining mountaintop with a young man whose face I recognize, standing upon it, smiling.
"Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted."