FATE

Do you believe in Fate? I do, fate plays a factor in our lives everyday, sometimes good, sometimes bad and sometimes horrific.

A week ago this evening, five 2007 high school graduates ages 17 and 18 from the next town over, lost their lives in horrible car accident. A group of 9 girls traveling in two cars were on their way to a family cottage of one of the girls. They left later in the evening at 9:30 because they waited for one that had to work. About 10:08 the first car, actually an SUV passed a slower moving van. After the driver reentered her lane the SUV went back into oncoming traffic and slammed head-on into a tractor-trailer for reasons we may never know. Maybe she overcorrected, maybe went off onto the shoulder of the road and was trying to get back in the lane and lost control. Right now it is estimated that the two vehicles were both going about 55 mph when they collided. Upon impact the fuel lines in the SUV and the semi ruptured and burst into flames. The truck driver escaped and tried to help the girls but the heat was too intense. Flames reached 50 feet into the air, burning through telephone and cable TV wires. No one could be saved.

The five girls were a group of best friends; popular in their high school and 4 were members of the cheerleading squad. Their squad had placed first in a competition in Florida this school year. These girls were all active in service clubs at school, gave back to their community, some were active in their youth groups at church, some held 3 jobs, some were in the National Honor Society, one hoped to join the Peace Corps, one visited India volunteering during her spring break, one had a full scholarship at the college they were going to attend in the fall, one was scheduled for cheerleading tryouts at her soon to be college this past weekend and one was an only child. By all accounts they were kind, generous, well rounded, students, not the stuck up stereotyped cheerleader. They had their whole lives ahead of them.

I didn’t know these girls but I have children, one the age of these girls. This tragedy has taken hold and affected the entire surrounding communities. I don’t think they had time to even know what hit them but for the girls behind them that witnessed the crash and for their parents and families it must be unimaginably soul crushing. As a parent I would die for my children and I don’t know how I would be able to go on if this had happened to mine. Family, friends and even strangers will help them cope. I am heartbroken for them all.

Now reading back on this and if you could read the local articles about these young ladies, you can see they had everything going for them and seemed to have led a charmed life. Does that make their lives any more valuable than others? (I’ve pondered this question and child killers come to mind but that’s another blog topic.) No, any loss of life is sad. I would like to think that everyone has some redeeming qualities and everyone has potential. Some may have not chosen the right path in life or made poor decisions for themselves but everyone has loved ones left behind to mourn them.

Getting back to the title of this post, Fate. Fate is a funny thing and the “if only” can make you crazy. If only the one girl could have gotten out of work earlier or if they had hit several red lights or left 3 minutes later this may not have happened. Everything had to work in favor of this fiery crash happening, from the truck driver, to the slow moving van to the girl’s vehicle. Everyone was in the wrong place at the wrong time. As I said, I believe in Fate and that everything happens for a reason. Sometimes you just don’t understand why or know what the reason is. It’s hard to justify the loss of life especially in ones so young.