12/16/03 - "Untimely."

Did any of you in the Maine crowd know Owen Smith? If you read the papers I'm sure you've heard about what happened, it was in the Camden Herald, the Portland Press Herald, and there was also even an AP article that could have been picked up by any number of papers (some links: http://rockland.villagesoup.com/announcements/index.cfm?AnnID=2336, http://www.pressherald.com/news/state/031210smith.shtml, http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/bfpnews/local/wednesday/1000h.htm). I knew him when we were young children, but hadn't seen him in years... and at first the whole thing just struck me as sad, without much feeling behind it besides indignation at how needless a loss it was, but then tonight when mom brought me the clippings of the various articles and I read them I started to have some real emotion behind it. I'm sure that if we hadn't moved from Maine I would have known him much better, and in my own self-centered way I grieve for not having had the chance. All of it is just awful and I think I'm going to write a letter to Joanne Smith, his grandma, because she's the one I know the best really (my dad lived in her house after my parents were divorced, oh what a great house that is), and I don't know, I just want to convey my sorrow for her loss. That family has befell so much tragedy... talk about a statistical anomaly. When I googled Owen's name to find those article links it also brought up an old page about his uncle Adam, who died in '95, and who was very very close friends with my mom as well as a mainstay of my early childhood. That article came up because it mentioned Adam's father, C. Owen Smith, who Owen was named after, and who also died tragically. My family is no walk in the park, but can you imagine? Joanne lost a husband, son, and grandson, all to tragic accidents. Perhaps it's all in the work of a matriarch, but Lord, I pray I never know such loss.