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.