Against the order of life
I had to attend a child's funeral the other day for work. A two and a half year old boy died during a family holiday in a seaside resort not that far from where I live. He drowned in a pond after wandering off from his parents for about five minutes. He was rushed to hospital where they made frantic efforts to revive him but tragically he lost his battle for life a few hours later.
It has been an awful week for road deaths in Ireland. In the space of 48 hours last week 11 people died on the nation's roads including a mother, three year old daughter and partner and a brother and sister who were on their way back from a concert.
The carnage on the roads in this country is fairly crazy. A lot of it can be attributed to our cavalier attitude to driving lessons. We are the only country in the EU where lessons aren't mandatory. There is also a huge backlog in relations to tests. So basically you can do a written driver theory test and get in to car. You are not supposed to drive on your provisional license without a fully qualified driver next to you but most people do.
The other factor really is our roads. They just weren't built for cars. Our government has been playing catch up building new motorways all over the place but it just isn't happening quickly enough. So lives are being lost needlessly here, there and everywhere.
I covered one crash where three people died including the brother and sister. Then I had the child's funeral. No wonder I needed an opt out day!
I think I was better able to cope with such tragedies when I didn't have a child myself. Now when I am covering these stories I can't help but think "That was someone's child etc."
At the two and a half year old's funeral they brought symbols of his life to the altar to place on his coffin for the duration of the mass. We all think our little ones are unique but the truth is that toys are toys. This little boy Glenn had a Tigger, a Barney toy and a phone as his treasured toys. Oddly Alex had two of the three. I couldn't help but think how I would have felt if it was my little boy.
You really are so emotionally vulnerable when you have a child. You can't protect them 100% of the time so it really is a case of crossing your fingers and hoping for the best. It is against the order of life to lose a child. My heart goes out to anyone who has suffered such a loss. Sorry for al the rambling. Wasn't quite sure where this blog was going.
It has been an awful week for road deaths in Ireland. In the space of 48 hours last week 11 people died on the nation's roads including a mother, three year old daughter and partner and a brother and sister who were on their way back from a concert.
The carnage on the roads in this country is fairly crazy. A lot of it can be attributed to our cavalier attitude to driving lessons. We are the only country in the EU where lessons aren't mandatory. There is also a huge backlog in relations to tests. So basically you can do a written driver theory test and get in to car. You are not supposed to drive on your provisional license without a fully qualified driver next to you but most people do.
The other factor really is our roads. They just weren't built for cars. Our government has been playing catch up building new motorways all over the place but it just isn't happening quickly enough. So lives are being lost needlessly here, there and everywhere.
I covered one crash where three people died including the brother and sister. Then I had the child's funeral. No wonder I needed an opt out day!
I think I was better able to cope with such tragedies when I didn't have a child myself. Now when I am covering these stories I can't help but think "That was someone's child etc."
At the two and a half year old's funeral they brought symbols of his life to the altar to place on his coffin for the duration of the mass. We all think our little ones are unique but the truth is that toys are toys. This little boy Glenn had a Tigger, a Barney toy and a phone as his treasured toys. Oddly Alex had two of the three. I couldn't help but think how I would have felt if it was my little boy.
You really are so emotionally vulnerable when you have a child. You can't protect them 100% of the time so it really is a case of crossing your fingers and hoping for the best. It is against the order of life to lose a child. My heart goes out to anyone who has suffered such a loss. Sorry for al the rambling. Wasn't quite sure where this blog was going.
posted by cara at 10:02 AM
2 Comments:
Ramble on, sometimes that's the importance of blogging, being able to dump one's feelings out onto the internet.
"Making the decision to have a child is momentous -- it is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body." - Elizabeth Stone
God, how horrible. I live in England and the driving is atrocious! My house is right on a curvy road, so close to it in fact that I could probably reach out my window and touch a car speeding by. Plus, the roads are lined on each side by tall hedges--people take hairpin curves on roads not big enough for two cars speeding at once.
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