LOSS OF A CHILD

A sad story in the papers made me think back to a conversation with my dad.

A family in Pennsylvania had a fire at their dairy farm house. The father was away from the house delivering milk...the mother was in the barn milking cows.

A fire broke out in the house containing their 8 children...all under 11 years of age. The 3 year old woke up and ran to the barn to tell their mother of the fire. According to the news...by the time the mother got the father...the house was engulfed in flames...with the loss of life of the remaining 7 children.

The circumstances don’t add up…but the end result...is the loss of life of this family's 7 children.

Within the last month or so, a similar tragedy occurred in Western Kentucky. A couple...and their 7 children...were on their way home from a relatives’ house...all riding in the family horse and wagon (an Amish family).

A recent rain storm had caused the creek...that they had to cross to get to their home...to rise to high levels. As they crossed, the swiftly flowing water overturned the wagon and 4 of the 7 children were swept away to their deaths.

A parent can hardly imagine...never wants to imagine...the loss of ‘one’ child. These parents lost multiple children at once.

In the later years of my fathers’ life...I spoke to him about many of the past events of his life. During one of his stories...he spoke of my oldest brother…his first son…Durward. Durward had died in an accident at age 37.

Fifteen years after Durwards' death...it was still a crushing loss to my father. He whispered softly how he still missed him.

These two families lost...not one child...lost 4 of 7 and 7 of 8. Only someone who has had a similar tragedy could even begin to fathom what they have gone through.

I'm sure...until the ends of their lives...these parents will have that inner pain that will never go away...of their lost children...and how they missed them.


Dan