ONE NEVER KNOWS

I saw another news report about the baby, Aniston Walker. As I wrote in my last blog post, the baby's death still haunts me. We are limited individuals. We don't know what's going on around us.

Sometimes I forget to stop, look about, and ask myself, "What's going on around me? How's the other guy's life?"

A few years ago I drove a route past one school to work at another. On my way to work, I regularly passed a particular crossing guard. She was a woman with a lot of pep, even early in the morning. Whether in the sunshine, rain, or frigid weather, she always had a smile on her face as she directed traffic.

I didn't suspect it at the time, but I later came to know that woman, and that all was not as it appeared.

That woman was a single mother raising two sons almost completely on her own. During that year I drove passed her on the way to work, her family lost their home and all their possessions in a flood. By the end of that year she was diagnosed with cancer.

--And all the while she smiled as she directed traffic before and after school.

I pray that I will be more sensitive, aware that those around me have needs. It may cause me to remember to say a prayer and offer a little kindness to those who cross my path.

Memorial on the Side of the Road

I drove by a local vegetable stand today. It was raining and as I passed by a small little memorial on the side of the road I felt particularly sad. You see, the memorial was for a baby, Aniston Walker. The baby went missing last winter. Her picture was all over social media. She looked so much like a Cabbage Patch Doll that I just fell in love with her picture. I cried and prayed that by some miracle the little baby Aniston would be found alive.

Weeks later the child was found. A motorcyclist parked on the side of the road by the vacant vegetable stand. The vegetable stand was closed for the winter and no one would be checking out the property for months. It just happened that while he waited for his friends to arrive, the motorcyclists glanced in the ditch and saw the decomposing body of the precious little girl.

I feel pensive whenever I pass that fruit stand and I drive that route regularly. What if the baby was still alive when she was tossed in the ditch like an empty Coke can? Did I drive past on the way to work and missed seeing her? Could I, or anyone else, have saved her life?

Realistically, I know she was probably dead before being tossed in that cold ditch. Had I seen her, I still couldn't have saved her.

 Still, it all makes me wonder how many people we pass in the course of a day that need our help. I hope I won't miss seeing the next one.