Life is Short

***This post has been updated below.

Yesterday a State Trooper pulled up to someone's home to let them know their lives had changed forever.

I don't know who answered the door of that home.

It might have been a mother.

It might have been a young bride.

It might have been a mom surrounded by kids.

It might have been a sister.

But to someone, it was a day that changed, redefined, and tragically altered life as they knew it.

My daughter Hope came home and journaled what we experienced yesterday and asked if I would post her journal on my blog. So, here is the story--- straight from a 13 year old's perspective.

Hope: "3:45 on January 27, 2008 will be a day I will never forget.

The phone rang like any normal call that we would have received. I was sitting on the couch doing homework and my mom was in the kitchen working on the computer. It was no normal call; it was a call of life or death. On the other line was my mom’s friend Mrs. Holly.

She was terrified! She was standing at the end of our driveway. A lady had fallen asleep and hit our rather large brick mailbox mailbox head on. The whole front of the car was demolished! There was a crack in the window where the lady’s head gashed through it. As soon as my mom got of the phone, without any questions we ran down our driveway. I was wondering the whole time how bad could it be.

When we finally reached the scene there were cars backed up on both sides of the street because the police would not let anyone through. There were fire trucks, lots of fireman, police cars, and ambulances. This was no little accident!

I felt bad for that lady and quickly got my phone out. I wanted people to pray so texted some pictures to a lot of my closest friends.

The E.R. people got the lady out. She was almost in tears because of how much pain she was in. I mean the car was wrapped around the mailbox!! She must have it really hard! When she passed by you could see some remains of her windshield in her forehead! Her face was bleeding and the E.R. people had put a cast on her foot where she thought she might have broken it. My heart just sank for her. As she was passing she said thank you to Mr. Dan for calling 911. And we quickly said, “We will be praying for you!”

Now she was gone.

Then the most tragic thing of all happened!

One of the fire department guys, had his three young sons with him. They were playing around in a ditch covered by tall grass many yards from our mailbox. They saw something that crushed me. They started screaming for their dad. The fire guys rushed over.

The Lady had hit a cyclist before she hit our mailbox. But nobody had seen the cyclist and the lady had no clue she'd hit him. She just knew she was sleepy one minute and hit our mailbox the next. This biker was just out on his bike and he got hit.

They pronounced him dead at the scene. He died! O my gosh I cried and cried. My heart not only was crushed for the lady but now for the guy and his family! I was kind of mad at the lady for falling asleep and hitting an innocent guy. The fire department people said he was young. Early 30’s. I cant even describe how bad I feel.

If this guy had had kids, their dreams and hopes for the future….crushed.
If he had a little girl, her dreams of walking down the aisle with her daddy….gone!
If he had a wife, her husband…. Dead!

I will never let this incident out of my heart. I feel for that family that will or have heard the news of this tragic story. Please pray for them."

Sweet blogging sisters of mine. Please do pray for everyone involved in the tragic accident. But I also see it as a wake up call to each of us. Life is short. That's why the Bible defines love with this in mind---
"Love is patient. Love is kind--- Love keeps no record of wrongs. Love always perseveres."

God, help me to be ever mindful that each day life is a gift to be treasured and should be lived with no regrets.

*** Update: We just found out that the cyclist was one of Holly's neighbors. Please pray for his wife and two daughters.