More sad news

So much sadness lately....too much.

When my daughters, now in their mid twenties, were children and young teens, they spent their summers at day camp.  The camp had a fabulous teen travel program, the kids would be on the road for days at a time during the week, but would be home every weekend.  Later, Jen was a counselor at the camp; she worked at the camp this past summer.   The girls have a lot of friends from their camp days.

Becca came home unexpectedly last night.  She told me  she and Jen will be attending a funeral this morning.  

I expected to hear that a friend’s parent had died.  Someone from the neighborhood, perhaps.

Instead I heard that the funeral isn’t for a friend’s parent, it’s for a friend.  A young man, a fellow camper and coworker.  The funeral is this morning.  The camp friends are all planning to pay a shiva call tomorrow.

I can only imagine the grief his parents must feel.  Makes me want to hug my own kids that much tighter.

It’s hard enough, at my age, to experience the death of a friend, someone close to my age.  How much more difficult it must be to face the death of a peer while in your twenties.

I never lost a friend when I was young, never had to face such loss, such grief, never had to face my own mortality at an age when most people are just coming into their own.

And yet, this isn’t the first time my girls have experienced such a loss.  There was a young man they knew in high school who died in a car crash.

So much death.

So sad.