Also lifting all of those in need up in prayer.

Please pray for my family. My grandpa (mom's dad) had a PET scan on Monday, and we're hoping for good news. He was treated for cancer (don't want to say specifics because it would really narrow it down who I am), and I can't bear for our family to lose yet another member. Not right now.

You've got it, clarinette. My aunt has been hospitalized - found passed out in her kitchen this morning. She's 80, and with a bad heart. I'm very worried.

Things that suck: Getting a call from your wife while driving carpool, and then telling the middle school kids in your car that a school friend of theirs was killed in a car accident last night.

Prayers for everyone.

Oh, MC, how awful. Prayers ascending.

Lifting up MC and his wife and family in prayer. Lifting up everyone in prayer who is currently needing it.

Thanks, y'all. It was something of a day for the kids.

My wife and I didn't know the boy, though my wife realized that the wreck she she passed close to while taking our daughter to dance Monday afternoon was the wreck in which he was killed.

It was a one-car wreck. His mother was driving. She had a .32 blood alcohol level (at 4:00 in the afternoon) and was driving 75 mph in a 45 mph zone. She lost control of the car, ran off the road and hit a sign and then three trees. She is in the hospital with serious injuries. Her son is dead. She has been charged with with misdemeanor death by motor vehicle and exceeding a safe speed. I imagine there will be more charges.

Our daughter didn't know him too well—she is in 8th grade and he was in 7th grade. She met him when she had an elective class with him this past spring, and she liked him. She said she still saw him in the halls from time to time, and would chat with him when she could.

One of our neighbors in carpool is also in 7th grade. She had some classes with him and was friends with him. She told her mom he didn't seem to have lots of friends, and she and another girl we know paid special attention to him for that reason, as well as just because they liked him.

Her mom, who like us has a son on the spectrum, understands that the boy who was killed was also on the spectrum. That could explain the apparent lack of lots of friends in middle school. (All too well do I remember how painful that was for our son.) Both our daughter and our neighbor are naturally friendly and out-going kids. But I can't help but wonder if they were particularly (and unconsciously) sensitive to this boy's need for some friendship because of what they've seen over the years with their own brothers.

It just breaks my heart in so many ways—for my daughter, our neighbor and the kids at school who shouldn't have to see this happen; for the stupid senselessness of it; and for a child who, if he was on the spectrum, probably had a hard 12 years that lacked what lots of other kids enjoy and take for granted. (And even if he wasn't on the spectrum, it's obvious his mom has problems, which would have certainly affected his life immeasurably.) I just ache that he didn't get a chance to see that life can get better.

This is such a tragedy, and the circumstances will make this so much more challenging for his peers. It's horrible to contemplate from an adult perpective, let alone a middle school student perspective. I lost a friend when she was 14 and it was very difficult to handle. We had volunteered together for 2 years at the local hospital, on the same shift with 3 other girls. When our volunteer coordinator called to tell us, I didn't want to believe it. It heightened my fear of death, and it affected my youthful optimism. Hug your kids and let them talk...I know you will. Prayers for all.

Thanks, Sciencewoman.

That story saddens me so much. I agree with much of what Sciencewoman said. When I worked in adolescent mental health, there were several times when a local teen lost his/her life and there was an odd phenomena among the other teens in the community. Even those from different high schools all seemed to have some sort of connection to that teen. They took it very differently than we tend to take deaths as adults. It was more personalized. I saw that happen when my daughter's friend G passed away too. As Sciencewoman said, keep talking the kids, keep listening to them. They need that more than anything right now. Prayers for all involved from me too.

And, I guess it's time to ask y'all to keep me in your prayers. I'm in the prep phase before my bowel resection on Friday. I wish I could fast forward to a week from now, when things will be starting to get better because I'm really dreading the next several days.

^^^ hugs and prayers for you, Dee...I'm sure you're in great hands and all will go well.

Dee, here's hoping that by next week we are celebrating all of the bad stuff being behind you and your beginning a full recovery.

You got it!

Thanks all. Surgery went well. I should go home on Monday.

^ like

(GC needs a like button. Oh, John...?)