A Fatal Accident

As I was driving to work this morning, I was listening to the news on the radio. I heard the newscaster report about a fatal car accident. Now, this is nothing new or stunning - we hear news like that all the time. But for some reason, this morning it got me thinking.

As many of you know, my little sister Val was killed in a fatal car accident in 1985. It was reported in much the same way - a couple of sentences on the radio; a few paragraphs in the paper. And there's nothing wrong with that. However, while so many people heard or read that and went on with their day, our lives changed forever. Val was many things to many people. My father lost a daughter. My brother and I lost a sister. My grandparents lost a granddaughter. And so on, and so on, and so on. Our family and friends were devastated.

So why am I writing this? I guess I'm hoping that the next time you hear or read something like that in the news, you take a moment - just a moment - to say a little prayer for all the lives that will never be the same after that one little sentence.