Thoughts and Prayers

 

I have no words for this.

Even now, as I try to write, I find my brain is just blank.

So, I'll post this story from ABC 7 New York, though it's on several major media outlets today.

The house in the story belongs to our dear Susan's father and late mother, who died in November.

Now, horrifically, Seven-year-old Rory has died. Rory is Susan's niece.

I type the words and it just doesn't make sense. That's Susan's childhood home.

That's the very base of her family.

A GoFundMe has been created to support Susan's brother Mark, his wife Meg, and their kids. 

Money is needed, sure.

But this goes way beyond that.

As I mentioned, Susan and Mark's (and Amy and Megan's) mother, Jane, died in November. 

Now Rory. 

Seven years old.

I mean, how much more can one family deal with?

They're devastated, to say the very least.

A recent notion is that we shouldn't offer thoughts and prayers because they're hollow. Now, I realize that's in relation to the disgusting rash of shootings in our society but the point remains.

Those thoughts and -- if it's your thing -- prayers are often sometimes all we have.

Mark, Meg, Susan, her dad, and the entire family will need every last ounce of support possible.

They're going to need strength. Somehow, they have to get from one minute to the next.

So if all you have is a thought, prayer, or a hug of some kind, I tend to think the family is willing to accept it (I'm not speaking for the family by any means).

For right now, as the family grieves, let us all do whatever we can for the DeCristoforo family of Staten Island.

Anything.

Sometimes words are all we have.

And they're escaping me right now.