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The last week in Ocala was a very hard
week. On Saturday, January 26, 2008 in
the early morning hours five young men lost their lives. These five young men had a been at a party on
Friday night celebrating one of the young men’s birthday. Reports are that there may have been drinking
at this party but it has not been confirmed as of yet. The one young man was driving an $80,000 BMW
that reaches speeds that no man should mess with. After the party these young men decided for
whatever reason to go out and see how fast the car would go and took out to the
Greystone airstrip. Sadly, they ran out
of road and ended up in horrific accident.
You can read all about it here: http://www.ocala.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=news24
As a mom of three children
ages 25, 17 and 16 I realized very quickly that this could have been one of my
children in that car. There has been an
enormous amount of gossip, blogging and forum posting about this horrible
accident.
I don’t think that there is
anyone here in town who doesn’t admit that they don’t understand why an 18 year
old boy had such a powerful car. There
is no denying that if drinking was involved that that is not acceptable. There is no doubt that they were trespassing
someplace that they shouldn’t have been.
There is no question that they were driving 120 mph when they launched
into the air and crashed to a horrible death.
So what does it all boil down to?
It all boils down to a series of bad choices that were made not just by
the boys but by some parents as well.
But that is all yet to be determined.
The painful truth is that
five young men lost their lives; five families will forever mourn their loss and
cherish their memories. There are
countless amounts of friends, teachers and coaches whose lives have also been
touched by this horrible accident. As a
parent you can only pray that those left behind have learned a valuable lesson.
There is a man whose name is
Michael Crook who has a blog that is dedicated to blasting people who have died
in accidents and he turns things around and makes what is already a bad
situation even worse. It is the likes of
him that cause me to shake my head and wonder what is wrong with people. He is a cruel man with no heart or feelings
and I find it interesting as I have looked at what he has done and said about
other people that he has suddenly turned off all his comments on his blog. If you want to check him out you can at: http://www.michaelcrook.org/blog/
but be cautioned that his is not a place to go and read if you are faint of
heart because there is nothing easy to read at his space on the internet.
So we had five funerals here
in Ocala last
week, one on Wednesday, two on Thursday, one on Friday and the last one on
Saturday. And then it happened…again….. http://www.ocala.com/article/20080204/NEWS/802040322/1025/NEWS
Yes that is right we lost another teenager on Saturday morning. No one is really sure what happened to cause
this accident at this point we just know that at 9 am Danny was driving and
some how lost control of his vehicle and hit a produce truck. He died Sunday morning at 10:13 am. This young man my children know from school
and he has also attended our church from time to time. More grief, more mourning, more pain and yet
another funeral.
Then this morning we find out
there has been yet another accident.
This time it involved a mom and her daughter, mom was airlifted to the
hospital and it appears as of tonight she will make it; her daughter, who has
not yet been identified (they say between 14 and 16 years of age) did not make
it. Sadly, this seems to be the moms
fault: http://www.ocala.com/article/20080204/BREAKING_NEWS/205443308/1340/NEWS
. We are praying that this is not
someone else that our children knew. How
much more can they take?
As a Christian I firmly
believe that only God can give life and only God can take a life and I also
believe that we are giving the right to make choices. What we choose determines what God has at the
end of that choice for each one of us.
In all three situations choices were made and death waited at the
end.
Watching the teenagers
yesterday at church as they found out that Danny had passed was very hard. The tears flowed so easily and so hard. As a parent all you can do is stand there and
hold them and be there for them. It is
very hard to watch and to even know what to say.
There have been lessons
taught through each situation to the young and to the old. As a mom I cannot even begin to imagine the
pain and anguish that all these families are going through. The “what if’s” and the “if only’s” will fill
their minds and hearts for the rest of their lives. Not a day will go by that they don’t
remember. A song will play, a movie will
come on, a scent, a food so many things will trigger the memories, the pain,
the laughter and the tears.
I guess looking at all this
all I can really say is that we need to be sure that we hug our children often,
tell them we love them always and remember that life is too short for all the
stupid things that we allow to cloud our lives.
The past week and a half have reminded me that we just don’t know when
the end of someone’s life will come.
There are no promises that we will see them tomorrow. Every moment is precious.
Please pray for the teenagers
in Ocala if you
think about it. There are so many that
are hurting. These deaths have been felt
at every high school in the county. So
many of their lives have been touched.
Thank you. 
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