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People Die on Christmas Too
 Last
night in Chicago a Boeing 737 slid off the runway at Midway
Airport. No one on the plane was severely injured, but the
plane came to rest in the middle of a busy suburban
intersection. The plane collided with vehicles.
One vehicle contained six year old, Joshua
Woods, of Leroy, Indiana and his family. His two younger
brothers and his parents are all hospitalized with injuries.
I don't know their situation, but in my
imagination it goes something like this...
... they'd been in the car all evening. The
boys were getting noisy and the parents were getting
agitated. They'd decided to drive to Chicago to spend the
weekend Christmas shopping, but now were regretted that
decision. Mom had begged for the trip. She relented when the
forecast called for snow, but Dad said "I'm not afraid of
driving in a little snow."
The younger boys were in carseats, but
Joshua just had a lap belt, which he frequently escaped. He
was sitting on the floor between the seats when they stopped
at the light at 55th and Central.
Mom had gone from asking to coaxing to
yelling, trying to get Joshua to sit in his seat. Finally,
Dad grabs Joshua by the shirt and lifts him onto the back
seat and gives that threatening Dad look. "Don't Move a
Muscle!"
Both look forward just long enough to see an
unbelievable site, a 737 skidding into the intersection. It
crushes their SUV like an aluminum can.
Regardless of the real situation, the freak
nature of it, they will both blame themselves for little
things.
The younger boys will forget their brother
in time, but Christmas will never have the same flavor as it
does for other children. The parents will have a sad memory
guaranteed to be rekindled at the same time every year.
I read the story last night around midnight,
just hours after it happened. That kicked off my dreams. I have
frequent nightmares of losing one of my children. I can't
imagine losing a child, but losing one near Christmas would be
even worse.
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