DEBORAH CORRAO / L’Observateur / May 15, 1999

As I write this column, the first funerals are beginning. The first of 22funerals for our neighbors and friends who lost their lives so abruptly almost a week ago. By the time you read this the funerals may be over, butthe grief and mourning will continue for many months ahead.

Mother’s Day, for many in our area, will become, not a time to celebrate, but a time for poignant memories of love lost in one brief moment on one bright Sunday morning in May.

As I write this, the questions we, as human beings, ask as we try to make sense of the accident, have not been answered. We look for reasons andexplanations and coincidences to humanize events that are, in truth, beyond our abilities to comprehend.

Often we think, in the face of such tragedies, that if we could answer the “why” we could put the loss into perspective – that somehow it will help to soothe our raw emotions, to make bearable, if even for a little while, the grief and anger that rise up within us and choke us with their intensity.

But, in fact, the answer to the “why” won’t lift the shroud of sadness that envelopes our community this week – at least, not now. The sadness willdissipate over time. One morning we will wake up without the accidentbeing foremost on our minds.

More than likely we will never have all of the answers we seek. But time,as it has a way of doing, will take away some of the hurt, some of the bitterness, some of the anger and the agony of today.

For now, we look to our familiar rituals to comfort us, to sustain us, to keep us afloat on a sea of despair. We look to our friends, our family andour community to get us through the days ahead.

And as time marches on, day by day, we will pick up the pieces of our lives and go on with our everyday tasks.

Then, someday, far into the future, we may come across a photograph, a handwritten note on a scrap of paper, a small trinket we had put away. Wemay hear a certain melody or catch a whiff of a familiar scent and the memories of this past Mother’s Day will come flooding back.Back to Top

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