What a Tragedy

We received an email mid-morning to let us know that there was an accident at Bethany this morning.  As I hadn't heard anything from Cameron, I was a little surprised.  I read through the email and instantly became sick to my stomach.  The school's technology director had been hit by a car in the parking lot this morning and had to be airlifted to Memorial Hospital.  I texted Meg right away to let her know.  She called as soon as she got out of class feeling absolutely awful.  Peter had always been nice to her and her classmates.  As were were talking she happened to see her priest on campus, so she went to him for prayers for all involved. 

While Meg was with her priest, I texted Cameron to see how he was doing.  He said that he felt terrible for Peter and Matt's families.  I hoped that the answer to my next text "Was Matt the one who hit him?" was no, but unfortunately it was not.  Blinded by the sun, Matt never saw Peter step in front of him.  The news was just terrible and continued to get worse.  Peter died from his injuries shortly before noon.  

I spent the rest of the afternoon thinking about the accident.  I thought about Peter's family, especially his grandchildren.  I thought about Matt and his children witnessing the accident.  I thought a lot about the Bethany community knowing that there were several doctors and nurses on staff that were involved in trying to save Peter.  The sadness of it all was almost too much.  Matt had been extremely supportive of Cameron over the past few months.  I couldn't even imagine the pain he was going though.

I talked with Meg and Cameron later in the day.  They both mentioned the "Bethany curse."  I agreed that there had been a lot of tragedies in the Bethany community over the past few years.  I didn't know if there were more or less than in other schools, but I did realize that the size and closeness of the staff, students, and families at Bethany made the tragedy felt more deeply.  Ultimately, I told them both that I do not believe that there is a "curse" on Bethany.  Instead I believe that God knows that there will be tragedies in these families lives and He brings them to Bethany so that they will have a supportive community to help them through the tough times.  I don't know if I am right or if I am wrong, but it does give me peace.