Clara Is Our Blank Space
Friends from our Iowa Days suffered a horrific tragedy last weekend. Their 8 y.o. daughter, Clara, was killed in an accident.
It was truly an accident. There’s no one to blame. No one to sue. (Laura and Andy aren’t the type of folks to sue anyway.)
There’s only mourning to be done and a future to try and figure out when your heart is shattered into tiny slivers.
Clara loved Taylor Swift. Laura posted video of Clara singing this song: Blank Space.
They launched a campaign to get Taylor to record a message for Clara’s funeral, which was this morning. I don’t know if that was successful. It many ways it doesn’t matter if it was. It brought people together, people who didn’t know each other, but who wanted, in some tiny way, to find a way to help the grief of a family who is now forever incomplete.
I rooted through our pictures to find shots to share with Laura and Andy one day. I’m writing this post as a way of processing my sorrow, but also because I want to DO something. Only time is going to make a difference, and even that won’t fix things.
I’m hugging my family closer. Reaching out with more love and kindness wherever I can. Just as Schmilly’s death reminded me to live with joy, Clara’s reminds me to live with thankfulness and love for every. single. day.
There’s no reason for what happened. Now we have to create reason for a different world.
The pictures below are from 2007 when friends gathered at Mom’s after they spent days helping us pack our belongings into the moving van for the move to Virginia. Friends from all across our lives gathered to care for us by packing, loading, hauling, and finally, celebrating with us by being together.
Andy, Laura, and Lily and Clara are scattered throughout these pictures. We held them in our hearts then, as we do now.
We all know it, but sometimes life sends a reminder, that we never know what is in store for us. That’s okay. Simply live with love as best we can.
Always with love…
Shortly after Clara’s death, another friend posted an article about what to say to someone who has lost a child. I’m linking to it here to remind myself to keep saying her name, and the names of children that other friends have lost.
