Someone I've Seen in Passing

This morning as I was driving to work, the radio announcer, sounding subdued for the time of day - said that there was some terrible news happening in our county and that, while the station didn't have confirmation of any deaths, there was an accident at an intersection. He mentioned the county roads and I sort of got a chill. You know, the goose walking over your grave feeling. I started to call Son-In-Law to see if he got the boys safely delivered to school and then realized the intersection was some miles north and east of where he (or they) would be. I let it go, with a quick little "Lord be with them" and went on my way to work. I didn't think much more about it. It would cross my mind and then slide away, what with the busy telephones and paperwork to be done. It was such an intense announcement - as though there was more to it than a simple wreck, but the full story couldn't be told right then.

T. called me in the afternoon to say that the lady around the corner had just called to tell him that her next door neighbor's son and a friend had both been killed in a wreck this morning while riding motorcycles. At the moment he called, some of my co-workers were talking - trying to remember who the victims were.

Everything came together at once. The names of the victims. The man on our corner whose son rides a motorcycle. Law Enforcement came early and told the family. The man on the radio had it right, it was terrible news. When I came home this evening, there were several cars in the yard on the corner. The grandmother lives just behind, in a house of her own and there were cars there, too. Friends gather. People pray and take food. This is a small town and that's what neighbors do. I'll ask T. if he thinks we can take down a fruit platter to the grandmother. She sat on our porch one day when she locked herself out of her house. It was raining and she walked down to use our phone. She sat in a rocker waiting until her friend came with a spare key. T. said she was nice