T: Tragedy

Recently, I was asked by my Church to serve as a speaker at the 8th grade Confirmation retreat - to share how my Confirmation has affected my life. I couldn't even bring myself to answer the email, because of the events that happened immediately following my Confirmation. I was confirmed in the Diocese of Pittsburgh by a visiting bishop - Bishop Al Jolson - who came all the way from Reykavjik, Iceland, just to confirm our class. He was the nicest guy - gave each of us his card with his address on it, and said that anybody who wrote to him would without a doubt get a reply. I was pretty excited to write to someone in Iceland at age 13. He confirmed us, went back to the rectory to take a nap, and never woke up. He had a massive heart attack and died - thousands of miles away from his home in Iceland. 

Five years later, my friend SD died in a car accident. It was 6 days after we graduated from high school, three days after my graduation party. He was on his way to a grad party on a wet road, in a site where there had been previous fatal accidents. He skidded off the road into a telephone pole and was killed instantly. I wrote a letter to the editor of our local paper about SD after he died, and a group of us spent that summer successfully petitioning the community for a guard rail at the accident site. The next summer, a permanent memorial to SD was put in place at our high school. His mom died of cancer a few years ago. I hope that his family is finally done with death.

Since 2001, I've lost three grandparents - both of my mom's parents, with whom I was extremely close, and my dad's mom. My dad's dad probably won't last a whole lot longer.

We lost a friend in February - I wrote about it back then.

With every single death, I'm brought back to Bishop Jolson. Every time. So is it any wonder I couldn't say yes to being a motivational speaker for Confirmation, when every time I think about Confirmation, I think of all those I've lost since then? 

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