In the past five years I have attended the funeral of a 12-year-old child who had his heart literally explode from doing pull ups, a father of a former student who had bone cancer in his face and an open-casket that I was not warned about, a co-worker who was a mother killed driving to work by a kid trying to pass on a double-yellow line and a co-worker who laid to rest a full-term still born infant.
All of those were difficult, and I thought I would be prepared for everything until I found out about a poker buddy and fellow Yinzer who lost his two-year-old (23 months) on Sunday morning.
That morning a bear was in their backyard and the family went out to see the animal walk into the woods. They had (man, how can I type that correctly?) a twin brother/sister combination and a seven-year-old daughter.
They saw the bear as they were getting ready for church, but the two-year-old girl was not feeling well. Mom decided to take her to the doctor while dad (a big lovable guy who I have many conversations with about kids) was to watch the eldest and the boy.
In the commotion of the bear, the boy crawled under the SUV. Mom backed up over him. Killing him while the eldest daughter watched and was not able to react in time.
The dad, I have heard, is destroyed. No charges were pressed. It was just a terrible accident, but I can only imagine that "what if" will be haunting them for the rest of their lives.
And if you really need to have the nail driven harder, the twin surviving daughter had to take a nap that Sunday afternoon for the first time without her twin.
Usually I am pretty hardened to this stuff. Usually. I think that streak will be broken. Both parents are well-liked school employees, so I am guessing these will be packed houses as well.
I cannot tell you how hard I hugged my little 16-month-old last night, and how much it scares me to death if anything should happen to her.
All of those were difficult, and I thought I would be prepared for everything until I found out about a poker buddy and fellow Yinzer who lost his two-year-old (23 months) on Sunday morning.
That morning a bear was in their backyard and the family went out to see the animal walk into the woods. They had (man, how can I type that correctly?) a twin brother/sister combination and a seven-year-old daughter.
They saw the bear as they were getting ready for church, but the two-year-old girl was not feeling well. Mom decided to take her to the doctor while dad (a big lovable guy who I have many conversations with about kids) was to watch the eldest and the boy.
In the commotion of the bear, the boy crawled under the SUV. Mom backed up over him. Killing him while the eldest daughter watched and was not able to react in time.
The dad, I have heard, is destroyed. No charges were pressed. It was just a terrible accident, but I can only imagine that "what if" will be haunting them for the rest of their lives.
And if you really need to have the nail driven harder, the twin surviving daughter had to take a nap that Sunday afternoon for the first time without her twin.
Usually I am pretty hardened to this stuff. Usually. I think that streak will be broken. Both parents are well-liked school employees, so I am guessing these will be packed houses as well.
I cannot tell you how hard I hugged my little 16-month-old last night, and how much it scares me to death if anything should happen to her.
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