Newtown: A Town Learns to Mourn

When you lose your Dad suddenly at age 17, you learn about death.

When your niece dies when she is 9 months old, you learn about pain.

When you lose 20 children in one day in your town, you learn to mourn.

We mourn each day for these kids and families.

We mourn the purity of our town.

I mourn the innocence of my four children.

I mourn for James as I read from his obituary:

"If his Dad was outside, James wanted to be right there with him."

My town is sad.  So am I.

I've learned we each mourn differently.

In mourning, I have learned I want to give of myself.

Trying in one small way to give life back to our town, life back to our kids.

As adults we know about death.  Especially this week.

But for our kids we wanted this week to be a step forward.

So we played.

We found a haven away from the media to play.

To play each day with our kids.

We cried.  We hugged.  We encouraged.

But through it all - our kids played.  And Smiled.  And Laughed.

One small step.

I am learning each day to mourn.   My town is learning too.

And yes, James......you are right here with us.