Jane Brooks, writing in the...
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Jane Brooks, writing in the "My Turn" column of Newsweek (April 29, 1991), calls herself one of the lucky ones. Her son, Andy, a third-grader at an elementary school in Philadelphia, and his classmates were in the classroom discussing plans for an outing. A helicopter and airplane collided and the fiery wreckage rained on the schoolyard where first and second graders chased one another in the April 4 spring sunshine. The crash claimed the lives of two children and five adults.
"Mom, do you think there was a purpose to this?" Andy questioned his mother. She replied calmly that she thought it just a terrible accident, but wondered what purpose her nine-year-old felt there might be. Looking at his mother with eyes rimmed with tears, Andy said simply, "I think God made it happen so people would appreciate each other more."
One night Andy took a piece of paper, wrote the names of the two children who were killed. By each name, he put some change and between them, he placed a dollar bill --all the money he had. He asked his mother if God would come and take the money to give them. She suggested he send the money to the memorial funds, to which he agreed.
Mrs. Brooks writes that she can only echo her son's words that if people learn to value one another more and to appreciate how precious life is, then perhaps some good can come out of something awful. For her, at this particular time, it is the only answer that makes any sense.
--Kirby
"Mom, do you think there was a purpose to this?" Andy questioned his mother. She replied calmly that she thought it just a terrible accident, but wondered what purpose her nine-year-old felt there might be. Looking at his mother with eyes rimmed with tears, Andy said simply, "I think God made it happen so people would appreciate each other more."
One night Andy took a piece of paper, wrote the names of the two children who were killed. By each name, he put some change and between them, he placed a dollar bill --all the money he had. He asked his mother if God would come and take the money to give them. She suggested he send the money to the memorial funds, to which he agreed.
Mrs. Brooks writes that she can only echo her son's words that if people learn to value one another more and to appreciate how precious life is, then perhaps some good can come out of something awful. For her, at this particular time, it is the only answer that makes any sense.
--Kirby
