A week ago six friends of my youngest (all teens) were planning an outing at Six Flags later in the week, coordinating rides and who could drive and setting the schedule. This group was close and thought of each other as extended family and were excited about a day of fun fitted in between the various summer jobs.

On that morning there was building excitement, Facebook postings about the great day they were going to have and a celebratory posting from the youngest passenger as they were nearing the exit on the highway...................

Late this afternoon they gather again along with many friends and family to scatter the ashes of this young boy on the hills of a ski area he loved. My youngest will be there as well as a good friend to all of them.

You see, right before the exit there was an accident that cause the car to flip over several times and resulted in the death of this boy. The others were all bruised and in shock but came through ok physically. I am not sure the emotional bruises of the accident will ever heal.

Death is always painful regardless of the age and situation, but the death of a child, to me, always seems more profound and my heart goes out to his family and to his close friends that were with him that day and to all the friends, like my youngest, who are touched by this. Life is a gift and incidents such as this are jolting reminders of how quickly life can change.