NockerGeek (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
nockergeek) wrote2002-02-16 12:07 am
nockergeek) wrote2002-02-16 12:07 am
Loss.
Four believed dead in Greensboro fire
A seemingly random headline, right? Where's Robert's bitching about his financial status, or his lack of L5R, or his PS2, or his job, or any one of a dozen other things?
Well, let's set all that aside for a moment, because right now, that shit doesn't matter.
The story above doesn't mention many names, because the bodies are unidentified, but I know who two of them are. I know, because when I called my dad to ask him something, he told me about this.
You see, two of those four are my cousins Donna and Rachel Llewelyn. They were both living in that apartment building, and are still missing and unaccounted for.They haven't contacted my aunt or uncle, and no one's heard from them, so they're pretty safely assumed to be dead.
I used to visit them all the time when I was a kid, because they only lived 10 miles or so away from us. As we grew, we grew apart as cousins often do, and then their family moved to Greensboro, and I hardly ever saw them, except at family reunions. Now I'm never going to see them again. I'm not devastated by this loss, probably because it has some distance from me - I hardly knew my cousins any more.
But I remember them. Even if the only way I can picture them is how I remember them when we were all young, I remember them. So I grieve for them and their lost potential - Donna was only a month or so older than I, and Rachel was a few years younger. And I grieve for my Aunt Carolyn and my Uncle Jim, for they've just lost both their children in one fell swoop. No parent should have to outlive their child, and no parent should ever have to lose all their children at once.
So pardon me if I put away my bitching and random wanderings for a bit, and just say a silent prayer to God to help my aunt and uncle through this most terrible tragedy.
A seemingly random headline, right? Where's Robert's bitching about his financial status, or his lack of L5R, or his PS2, or his job, or any one of a dozen other things?
Well, let's set all that aside for a moment, because right now, that shit doesn't matter.
The story above doesn't mention many names, because the bodies are unidentified, but I know who two of them are. I know, because when I called my dad to ask him something, he told me about this.
You see, two of those four are my cousins Donna and Rachel Llewelyn. They were both living in that apartment building, and are still missing and unaccounted for.They haven't contacted my aunt or uncle, and no one's heard from them, so they're pretty safely assumed to be dead.
I used to visit them all the time when I was a kid, because they only lived 10 miles or so away from us. As we grew, we grew apart as cousins often do, and then their family moved to Greensboro, and I hardly ever saw them, except at family reunions. Now I'm never going to see them again. I'm not devastated by this loss, probably because it has some distance from me - I hardly knew my cousins any more.
But I remember them. Even if the only way I can picture them is how I remember them when we were all young, I remember them. So I grieve for them and their lost potential - Donna was only a month or so older than I, and Rachel was a few years younger. And I grieve for my Aunt Carolyn and my Uncle Jim, for they've just lost both their children in one fell swoop. No parent should have to outlive their child, and no parent should ever have to lose all their children at once.
So pardon me if I put away my bitching and random wanderings for a bit, and just say a silent prayer to God to help my aunt and uncle through this most terrible tragedy.
no subject
Hope they turn out okay.