The Train

Angie already knows this story, but I wanted to share it will you guys because it really made me think. On Tuesday morning, I was waiting for the train and heard that it was late due to a pedestrian incident. That's what they called it "an incident." Well this incident happened to occur one stop ahead of mine so I could look down the track and see the commotion. At first, I thought, "How dumb can you be to walk accross the tracks and get hit by a train?!?" I mean people around here are very familiar with trains - they are constantly running back and forth to and from the city. After I got to work (nearly 3 hours later), I looked up the story on the news online and found out a little more about what happenesd. This lady, a 52-yr old speech therapist that worked for a local elementary school was an avid cyclist and even belonged to a biking club. She had 3 children all between the ages of 17 and 22, and was apparently constantly doing volunteer work and such. Earlier in the morning, a freight train had derailed and caused the bells to go off and arms (that bar the street so you can't cross) to remain down until a crane could finish correcting the mishap. Apparently, this was about the time this woman was biking in the area and as she came to the crossing, she assumed that the arms were down only for the freight train, and it would probably be safe to cross. Well, she assumed wrong and as she biked across, she was hit by a commuter train and killed. I think what got to me was that all she did was make a thoughtless decision. We all make stupid, thoughtless decisions like this everyday...not wearing a seatbelt, going through an almost red but still yellow traffic light, any number of little things. So, as I said to my mom, I would like to make a small request to the girls that I love so much...please don't make any stupid, rash decisions...particularly ones that could cause you bodily harm and death...I'll try and return the favor.

Sorry that this is a little depressing, but it was a shocking reminder as to how fragile our lives actually are, and the whole situation has been constantly reeling in my mind since it occurred.