Tragedy After College

So Friday night, D2 came to me, teary eyed, to tell me awful news: an acquaintance of hers from UF, a young graduate named Lauren Marcus, was in a coma. Apparently Lauren was struck by a truck in NYC, where she had moved after graduating UF last May. She was to start St. John's Law this Fall. D2 showed me her photos: a beautiful young woman, who grew up on LI. She joined the "sister sorority" of my Ds --DPhiE. D2 knew her -- not well. Immediately I went into calming, optimistic Dad mode. I speculated that the NYC trauma docs probably put her in a medically induced coma, and she'd emerge. In my law firm's experience, we've had several clients with severe closed head trauma --unconscious for weeks, who have woken and recovered very well. One young fellow, the victim of a sleeping rental car driver, got over $4 million, and now, 17 years later, is running a succesful business in his native Bahamas. Another young fellow, in a coma at JMH for weeks, has recovered so well he plays high school sports. His parents donated money to JMH and a plaque thanking the staff hangs on the wall in the Intensive Care Unit. So we waited, and hoped. Last night, D2's roommate Ashley called. My optimism was ill placed: Lauren died. D2 was shocked with the shock that comes from being so young, and seeing your contemporary leave this earth. Social media lit up, with moving tributes to Lauren, and the "sister sororities" thanking each other for support. Wifey looked up Lauren's family. The Dad is my age, and went to the same Canarsie high school Wifey did, before Wifey moved to Miami. I don't know Lauren's parents, but I have a pit in my stomach for them. They must be inconsolable. They raised a beautiful, accomplished daughter, who was on a great track for success, and she was taken, so unfairly and suddenly. Of course, all deaths should diminish us, as John Donne wrote. But when the loss is so close to home it hits harder. So I'll pray for Lauren's parents and family, though I don't know them. I won't try to figure out why they suffer so --how the cosmos's unfairness strikes so capriciously. And I'll savor, as I always do, each moment I'm fortunate to share with my Ds. Don Henley sang it so poignantly: in a New York minute, everything can change.