A Light for My Path

This coming Friday, April 11^th marks eight years since my daughter Rachel went to Heaven. It’s hard for me to fathom that it’s really been that long since I hugged her, spoke to her, laughed with her, argued with her, ate chocolate cake with her, watched her walk down the aisle with her newlywed husband. Sometimes it feels like it’s only been a minute. Sometimes it feels like forever.

Every parent who has lost a child has that child’s death date fused to their heart and mind. That date will resonate with them until the day they themselves pass away.

My heart says the world should acknowledge this significant date. At the very least, the world should pause for a moment of silence in her memory. My head knows that, in fact, April 11^th is just an ordinary day for the vast majority of people.

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Here are some random statistics:

• In a standard 365-day year, there are 525,600 minutes.
• The population of the United States is 340.1 million.
• Each year in the U.S. an average of 37,000 children under the age of 18 die.
• In 2023 approximately 243,000 people in the U.S. under the age of 40 died.

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If we assume most of those people under 40 had at least one living parent, and if we held a moment of silence in support of each of those parents, the world would be still for 168 days. And that’s just for bereaved parents in this country.

Give me a minute to wrap my head around that, please.

Here’s the thing, though. When you look at the bigger picture, those 243,000 young people are 0.07% of the population of the United States. Less than one tenth of a percent. Most people live for many more years than 40. The average life expectancy in the U.S. is 77.5 years. I’m grateful for that. It means I’m likely to be here another 12 years, at least. I may be blessed with great-grandchildren in my lifetime. I’ve got time to write a book, clean out the guestroom closet, and lose 20 pounds.

I’ve probably also got at least another 12 years before I get to see my younger daughter again. Feels like forever. But, once I’m there, it will feel like it’s only been a minute.

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Laura