loss after loss

Since I was in court all day yesterday I missed what was going on in real life.  I was shocked and saddened when I picked up yesterday's paper at work and read the obituary of my dear friend Louise.  She and Steve have been my buddies for years and years and we have daughters that played roudball together back in the day.  Joli stuck with it....Lauren could have cared less.  We were in the same SS class for years at FUMC and generally had a great friendship visiting each other on occasion for this or that.   Her daughter was killed when she was a young LPN by a drunk driver.  The kids have been with she and Steve off and on since then.  I will go to my grave remembering me, Daddy and Lauren going to Laura's funeral on Christmas Eve and it all seeming so unreal.  They established a nursing scholarship in her memory and ministered to the driver in prison after finding forgiveness because that's what Jesus would do.  Fine Christian people.  

I was running here there and yon at work today putting out fires and started hearing about a massive wreck on the interstate near the Lenox exit.  Another nice guy whom I knew through our "kids" was killed instantly as he drove a tractor mowing the sides of the roadway.  An 18 wheeler hit him and that driver is in critical condition.  

What is so odd about all of this is that it's a part of my day to day life just as it is for all other healthcare practitioners and emergency responders.  Most people never know that feeling or what it does to a soul.  Lauren was visiting a social work client a few years ago and ran upon a wreck where a young woman was thrown from her vehicle, surrounded by pictures of family and friends.  She was engaged and her wedding dress had been laid out on the bed in preparation.  Lauren stayed with her until EMS arrived and she barely had a pulse, but she wasn't alone.  That's when God sends us angels.  

Never get so busy that you take life for granted.  It's something that I have to practice day after day and sometimes minute by minute.  All is well with my soul and that's a peaceful feeling.  I try to keep it that way.  

Grief ~