Life...

Life is a bunch of you know what.  When it seems as if things are going fine, life smacks you right in the face.  This week, life has looked me straight in the eye and has said screw you.  I lost a little cousin on Thanksgiving Day.  Due to slick roads and the fast driving of another person, his life, along with that of his seventeen year-old girlfriend was taken forever.  Working with teenagers became that much harder.

As a teen library assistant, I work with teenagers on a daily basis.  And for this past week, I have been unable to deal with their happiness.  When they laugh, I wonder if Adrian and Maddie were laughing with each other when the accident occurred.  When the teens smiled at me this week or told me a joke, I wondered what the last joke the two of them (Adrian and Maddie) shared with one another.  It has been so hard to deal with.

His sisters and I grew up very close to one another and when he and his brother James came along, they added that little boy craziness to the mix.  It’s funny the things that you remember when you are forced to think about them.  I remember how cute he was growing up.  I also remember that he was quite a handful as well.  It’s these memories that make me smile when I think about him.  It’s going to take those memories now to get us through the holiday season now.

In 2002, we lost his grandmother right before Christmas, and now this.  It really makes you take a step back and look at the people you surround yourself with as well.  This kid fought the fight against cancer and he won.  And in a swift second, his life was taken away, just like that.  It really makes me stop and wonder,  what if?