Unimaginable Sadness

So Sunday afternoon I was out buying some new koi for my pond down in the Redland, wifey was at a play with her friends in the Gables, and Daughter #2 was about halfway home from visiting her sister in Gainesville. Daughter #1 called. "Dad --I wanted to tell you because you're probably going to hear about it in the news --a girl in my sorority was killed early today."

It turns out the girl, Pam, flipped her jeep on 34th street at 2 am, was ejected, and died at the scene. Daughter #1 barely knew her, even though they were in the same pledge class, but this sure has affected wifey and me.

Pam's parents, from Coral Springs, presumably did all the right things. They raised their baby daughter, got her through adolescence, and into our state's flagship university. Then, for reasons known only to, I guess, the Big Man, their daughter was taken from them.

It turns out that there have been several UF motor vehicle deaths this semester. A first year law student, hit while jogging, just died today. Two other undergrads died in October.

I don't know. These things shock us back to reality. My friends and I have been trading emails about the "tragedy" of our beloved Canes leaving the Orange Bowl (the last game is Saturday). How silly it is to be upset about this, or just about all of the other "small stuff."

Daughter #1's sorority rented a bus for the long round trip to Coral Springs for PAm's funeral. Daughter #1 and her friends, who barely knew Pam, aren't making the trip. Still, my heart breaks for these parents.

When I was in college, the first of my contemporaries began to die. One girl, Dianne, a pretty blonde, was killed in a car wreck in California. Another young man, Carl, who I was fairly close with when we were kids, drowned, Monty Python-like, when he fell through the ice on a pond while playing hockey, and his goalie pads filled with water, dragging him down. That was nearly 30 years ago.

I've been fortunate to do a LOT of living since 1979, and I wonder about Diane and Carl. Now Pam joins their fraternity/sorority --the saddest group to be a part of.