A friend today sent me a link to someone else’s blog. I’ll share it with you because I found it to be so true and authentic. It talked about the tragic and what seems to be the senseless death of thirteen people in the Binghamton, NY shooting. Please take a few minutes to read this. The Message From Tragedy
It reminded me (this is why my friend sent it to me) of all the questions I had when my daughter Laura passed away.
On the surface I could not see the justice or the reasoning why she was not able to live a full vibrant life. How could the death of a fourteen year old make any sense at all. It took years for me to look past the event, her death, and see what it could have represented.
Laura genuinely loved people. She was always the first to give of her time and herself to help others. She touched so many people in what can be viewed as an infinitesimal moment in time. We saw this with the hundreds of people that arrived at her funeral and all the positive, uplifting comments from friends and strangers in the receiving line and through the cards and phone calls in the days and months to come.
She was my teacher. She taught me unconditional love. That was the turning point in my life. As Howard Falco also mentions in his blog, I find myself not taking things for granted. My relationship with my parents especially my father has healed. I spend more time catching a sunset, more time being thankful for everything in my life and not just things in my life but where I am in my life. Friends and strangers I meet in person and in the cyber world have all contributed in some way to who I am today and I hope that in my small way I too can make a difference in someone else’s life. Perhaps touch the life of thousands of people worldwide and in my own way thank my daughter for giving me a gift I may have missed or found too late.
See the world through other people eyes for a moment and realize that we are here for a finite amount of time. Knowing this, ask ourselves; ‘Would I be doing, saying, acting this way if I knew the person I am with right now would not be here tomorrow?’ Perhaps sometimes it takes tragedy to remind us all of how fragile and delicate and wonderful life truly is and how blessed we are to be here every single moment of the day.
Thank you as always for taking time to read my blog. I share with you for the first time ever photos of my daughter Laura Maria Guzzo.
Blessing to you all.
Frank
Categories: Life, Personal Motivational
My Life ... My Journey ... My Way 
Thank you for sharing these thoughts Frank. I hope that Howard’s email brought you-in some small measure-peace of mind. Your post reminds us as well that we never know what tragedies, suffering, hurts (large and small) that the person next to us-in a car, online, in a Starbucks-has endured, and perhaps we will all be reminded to be a bit kinder the next time we are waiting impatiently in line at a store, or speaking with an employee on the phone, or dealing with a seemingly erratic driver, or interacting with those closest to us. Perhaps we will even engage in those often cited ‘random acts of kindness’.
Best always,
Hilory
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My sympathies FranK and Thank You for sharing this bit of Laura with us.
My daughter Janice was called home at age 34 and miss here every day, too.
One of her many important contributions to our lives was that she kept our fractured family to-gether.
I won’t ramble on but will keep you in my prayers.
Tribute to Janice at http://budurl.com/3ghn
Warmly.
Teddy Towncrier
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Frank, I agree with you, there are reasons for these sad facts of life, we loose things and people all the time, and we need to keep on going, it’s tough so I can’t imagine how much strength an elder person must have since they loose more than us every day. In any case, I have also come to give value to little things when I got quite sick at 15 and could no longer do the things I enjoyed the most. Every time I am able to do something from the old times, it is a great victory to my eyes, and even when I just get to do something silly like try a new food or sweet or something which I was always able to do (thanks God!), I still get excited cause I know at a moment’s notice you could loose those too!
Other people seem to think that I am overly excited about little things, but they are lucky they never had to loose those to be able to appreciate how great they truly are! So, yes, I agree with you, live your life to the fullest, people should get off their couches and go enjoy the big wide world!
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Thank you for sharing Teddy. I went looking for the link that had a tribute to Janice but it does not work. If you can repost it, I would appreciate that. Have a blessed day.
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Thanks for your interest, Frank.
Janny’s sisters kicked up a fuss about using their pictures so I temporarily removed the whole tribute.
I intend to put up a revised edition, soon.
Blessings.
Ted.
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