How can you comfort a mother whose pain is so deep it haunts her every waking moment, and even follows her in her sleep?
How can you say “be strong” to parents whose unfathomable grief make them want nothing more than just to curl up and let the world pass them by?
How can you bring peace to hurting hearts that lash out against God in anger and confusion?
You cannot.
In their darkest hour, there is simply nothing that anybody could do to bring true peace and comfort to hearts broken by the sudden loss of a child.
As a mother myself, my heart cried with Dindo and Zusette Mascardo who lost their son, Mark, in a tragic accident.
As a mother, you cannot help but grieve the loss of a child who practically grew up with your own, one so young, a life that had just begun, filled with so much promise and endless possibilities, gone in an instant.
How does one make sense of this?
You can try and tell yourself that Mark, at 17, lived the best years of his life, fully embracing his youth as he faced his future unafraid, and with full certainty that the best was yet to come.
You can tell yourself that he had it all, surrounded by the love of his family, and the affection and admiration of his friends.
You can tell yourself that he left this world with his heart untouched by all the grief and disappointments that are certain to come with life and adulthood.
Now, he will never know the pain and uncertainties of living, nor ever cry upon realizing that life, after all, is not totally what he had envisioned it to be.
He left this world with the full glory and confidence of youth, doing what he loved best. He lived. And he lived well.
That is how you try to make sense out of the loss of such a young life.
But then again, in your heart, you know you simply cannot.
There can never be any sense in burying a child, because in the natural order of things, it is the child who should bury his parents, and not the other way around.
You can but cry with them, and pray that in time, peace and acceptance will be granted by the Almighty into their hearts.
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Author’s email: olgaluciauy@yahoo.com
