Who Else?

A good friend of mine lost her child recently. Unspeakable, seismic sadness. When she called, I listened in stunned silence as she told me what had happened. My mind was racing, trying to comprehend the reality of it and thinking about getting a plane ticket as soon as I hung up the phone. I had received the phone call just as I’d pulled up to our house, and I sat in my car long after we hung up, crying in disbelief and pain for my friend.

For the next few days, before I left for the funeral, I wondered, Who else? As I walked through crowds at the store and went to meetings at work, I…