Broken Bodies, Broken Lives

Waiting is terrifying.

That time of not knowing.

That time of building anxieties.

I remember being in the surgical waiting room while Diane was in surgery for her breast cancer. The OR nurse had told me it would take about an hour. The anxiety built as the one and one-half hour mark passed, and then the two hour mark.

And I waited...

Despite our best efforts to remain upbeat and keep a positive attitude; an ominous cloud seems to hang over us as we wait.

I couldn't help but think of that ominous cloud as I watched the coverage of the devastation in Moore, Oklahoma yesterday.

I couldn't help but think of those parents arriving at one of the designated re-unification centers in search of a loved one only to be taken to a side room to be told their child was among those unaccounted for or among those who had lost their lives.

Many sit and wait.

They hope that what they heard was wrong but feeling the increasing weight of despair as each minute passes.

But they wait.

Others wait at the trauma center in Oklahoma City; hoping and praying that their loved one will not succumb to their injuries.

Waiting.


Each passing hour with no word increases the fear. Each minute brings increasing pain.

Meanwhile, out among the devastation the rescuers press on in the hope of finding another survivor, yet struggling under the overwhelming weight of finding the dead.

Scattered among the debris are bodies - broken by the forces of nature. Each broken body is more than just a body. It is a life that someone is waiting to hear about; a life that touches many other lives - lives that will be broken just like the body of their loved one.

The puzzle that makes up their lives forever missing a piece.

While it is right for us to focus on the physical and monetary demands of the search operations as they are ongoing, the day will soon be upon us when the searching has ended and the rebuilding begins. The hustle and bustle will end and the media trucks will drive away to cover the next major news story.

For many, though, the days when life in Moore, Oklahoma begins its attempt to return to normal will be the days their sorrow overwhelms them.

The families will be left behind in their grief to try to piece together their broken lives; haunted by the thoughts and memories of their loved ones. They will try to learn to live their lives with a gaping hole that a loved one used to fill. They will mourn. They will wonder.

What could have been that now will never be?


Let us not forget that today begins a series of firsts for many families.

Their first day without a loved one.

The coming weeks and months will bring more painful firsts; the first birthday they missed, the first Christmas without their loved one, the first...