A town in mourning

I suspect Gretna, Nebraska is very similar to McCook, Nebraska and the other towns around us. We’re separated by distance (Gretna is 268 miles from McCook) but because our population size is similar (Gretna has about three thousand people less than McCook) one would conclude that culturally and socially we are much more alike than different.

Five teenage girls who were described as best friends and achievers in everything they did decided to go for a ride together Monday night. I’m sure they had done it many times before and planned on doing it many times in the future. But no matter how routine a behavior becomes, it’s the parents who do the worrying. When our teen-age babies are out from under our control we worry about them until they’re safe at home once more. I know this because I’ve done this, just like many of you have. Even with my boys approaching middle age now, I ask them to call me when they reach their destination on a trip or return back to their residence. I know it’s upsetting to them for their parents to issue these kinds of expectations but they begrudgingly adhere to them because they know they’re issued out of love.

So this past Monday, I’m sure that five sets of parents in Gretna did the same thing or at least something similar before their daughters left the house. It was reported that the girls were inseparable friends, involved in many activities at the school including athletics and were honor society students.

But as much as we lecture and teach our children, it sometimes seems it’s never enough. That’s because we’ve made some of the mistakes we warn our children about but the children haven’t and they’re anxious to spread their wings and do things they haven’t been allowed to do up until now. So it’s not surprising that the Ford Fusion they were riding in was reported by police as traveling at a high rate of speed when it somehow left the highway and caught fire.

We hear about accidents involving a high rate of speed often and more often than not, it’s because teenagers are driving and enjoy the risks they’re taking that they haven’t been able to take before. But sometimes things go horribly wrong as they did in Sarpy County this past Monday night. Four of the five girls were pronounced dead at the scene and preliminary reports indicate that the most recent medical technology will be used to help identify the victims. One of the five survived the crash, was rushed to the hospital and is expected to recover.

We often hear of this too. One person lives, the others die. We don’t have answers for that. No one would dare suggest that the survivor lived because she was living a better life than the ones who died. Things just happen that way. And those of us who aren’t touched by this personal tragedy far too often see it as something that happened to someone else as they go about their lives. In the process, we forget that those young girls could have been OUR young girls and it could have been our community grieving instead of someplace else.

I and others who share my experience know that once tragedy of this kind invades your life, nothing is ever the same again.

So Gretna school is closed for the rest of the week while memorials and remembrances are being held all over town to honor the sudden and tragic loss of four beautiful and ambitious 15 and 16 year old girls. Teenagers have been taking chances forever and will continue to do so. Most of them will survive unscathed but a few won’t.

And we never know who those few will be until it’s too late to do anything to help them avoid their mistake.