Thursday, July 24, 2008

What is The Plan?

It’s been a very difficult week. A little girl from Maggie’s daycare passed away on Tuesday after a 7-month battle with a rare form of cancer. She was adorable and vibrant and 4 years old. The daycare is awash in tears; no one can enter without becoming overwhelmed with emotion for the loss of this tiny girl and the devastation that has been thrust upon a family that is the very definition of normal… people just like us.

I overheard a mother talking with one of the teachers saying, “It’s hard to understand what The Plan is when God takes someone who has not yet lived a full life.” It is hard to understand.

If I were in charge of The Plan, babies would be born with an 80-year expiration date. The last few years of a person’s life would be celebrated and cherished, knowing these would be the last. Children would always outlive their parents. Tears would be reserved for scraped knees, missed opportunities, broken hearts and joy. Childhood illnesses and injuries would build character and shape futures, but would never claim their lives.

I respectfully submit that the Current Plan sucks and a New Plan is in order.

16 comments:

Jess said...

When I was in high school, I volunteered as a tutor at a low-income kindergarten. One of the girls that I tutored was this beautiful five-year-old who had been born prematurely. She was so small that she still wore clothes for little toddlers--they had snaps on them for easy diaper changing even though she didn't wear a diaper. A few months after I started tutoring her, her kidneys failed and she died.

It's the kind of thing you never get over. I can't ever not picture her and how smart and sparky she was. It is the hardest thing. I'm sorry that you and everyone else in this little community has to go through this.

Erin said...

Oh no. I am so sorry for her family. There is no end to that grief.

Anonymous said...

What a tragedy. I totally agree...a New Plan is in order.

Misty said...

This is one of the main reasons I think there isn't a Plan at all. Because there is no sense in tragedy, which makes it all the more overwhelming. I think that is why people have to think there is a Plan. So that there can be reason to the chaos. For the comfort of order, even order we do not understand. I actually wish there were a Plan. Yours sounds pretty good. Let's start there.

You read something like this and think "that could be me" and your heart just breaks into shiny sharp pieces and pierce your eyes so the tears fall down. That could be me.

bananafana said...

The Plan DOES suck. We're praying for a family close to us with a little boy O's age. He had a brain tumor and they thought that everything was finally fixed and in remission but just found out a few months ago that it is coming back. I can't even imagine that pain and that heartache and get sick to my stomach just thinking about it. It still amazes me that the strength of our love for our kids directly correlates with the strength of the pain we feel on their behalf. I never could have imagined that either would be so powerful

Chantal said...

This is so tragic. Your spot on, it just doesn't seem right.

artemisia said...

I am so sorry. My thoughts are with little Maggie and her classmates, as well as the family.

Hang in there.

Bette Creek said...

I think that would be my worst nightmare... outliving my child.

My thoughts are with you guys!

Nowheymama said...

Oh, Lori. I am so, so sorry.

Beck said...

I'm religious and stuff, but there's no good answer to this horrible suffering. I'm just so, so sorry for her family and for the people who knew her.

Astarte said...

I agree that The Plan seems to lack... planning. My nephew was killed last year while sledding on the same hill he'd been sledding on for sixteen years, except there had been an ice storm and he hit a bump, and then a tree. He died in his mother and twin sister's arms as his father's EMT squad worked to save him. There are truly no words. I thought we would never, never be able to go on. It still amazes me sometimes that time did not stop at that very second, because a world without him in it just seems unfathomable, yet here it is.

I will be thinking of you, and your daughter, and their family, for a long time to come. Peace be with you.

LoriD said...

Astarte - I'm so sorry for your loss. I lost a cousin close in age as a teenager. Years later, the loss still feels surreal and even raw at times. It's just not the way it's "supposed" to happen.

mom of the year said...

New Plan? Amen. This is so heartbreaking.

Mighty Morphin' Mama said...

How utterly heart-wrenching, I am so sorry. I have to say that I know that these sorts of things are not in The Plan. They happen and they suck, but suffering children were never part of the plan.

Anonymous said...

Right you are, Lori. The Plan (if there is one) sucks, so I'm with Misty that ergo there is no Plan. Because if there is, and it so clearly sucks, what does that say about the Planner?

I am so, so sorry for the loss of such a fresh, new life. It is just. plain. wrong.

shay said...

I'm pretty sure there was a point at which The Plan got pooched.
I'm crying reading this and the heart wrenching comments.
Hugs to you and to the family of that precious child.