“We’re going to the mall. See you later.”
What could be more ordinary, more a part of everyday life, than going to the mall, especially at this time of the year?
You’re on the phone. You wave goodbye. The people you love leave the house, start the car and pull out of the driveway. You’ll see them later.
Maybe.
Yesterday in Omaha, Nebraska, nine people died and five were critically wounded at a mall filled with holiday shoppers. One of those random events we can’t predict and have no control over. One suicidal teenage shooter, nine grieving families, dozens of lives altered in minutes.
What always races through my mind when I read about events like this is “Did the survivors have a chance to say “I love you” before their loved one left for work or to shop? Did the people who died know how much they were loved? Were they angry before they left the house? Did the survivors know how much they were loved by the people who died?
Or would the survivors carry, in addition to the pain and grief of their loss, the awareness that they never said the things they could have said if they had known their loved ones would die that day.
We’re all at the mercy of random events. Don’t wait to say “I love you.”
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