meembo

My older son is in Boy Scouts, and yesterday he and I and other Scouts spent the morning putting up flags downtown, and then attended a memorial service downtown for veterans. After that, the Scouts did a few service projects around town. Most of the kids stuck around the church (which hosts the troop) for a pizza lunch, but a couple of the older Scouts had cars and were doing a few other things during lunch. One of the oldest Scouts, who led the activities of the day, drove home for his lunch, and on the way home, he swerved in his lane and lost control of his car, hitting a tree and killing himself. The police came to the church a couple hours later and told the Scouts and the leaders what had happened. It was a rough afternoon. Some of the parents hadn't heard from their own sons since early morning, and were frantically making sure their son was OK (the police had a hard time finding the boy's father, and thus were reluctant to release any details about the crash until the dad was found).

It's awful when this happens. It's especially awful when there are no reasons at all that explain why or how it could have happened, especially to a good kid doing good things. Yesterday the shockwave went through the parents, and I expect that by this afternoon, when the memorial mass is held at the host church, the kids will be feeling and processing what happened.

The police think the kid was driving too fast around a left curve at the top of a hill in a rural residential area, and that he met an oncoming car and tried to swerve back into his lane. He hit the tree and it was over.

This kind of accident touches my absolute worst fear -- that something violent, lethal, irrevocable, happens to one of my sons. Worse yet, there is no reason to explain why it happens. I can't imagine what the parents feel.

I know it happens every day to hundreds of families, but this one sent a shock wave through me that has brought this weekend to a halt for me.

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