Five years ago yesterday was a day that I will never forget. It feels like yesterday when I think back to that day and those events. I cannot believe that 5 years have passed already. I received a phone call the morning of July 16, 2004 while I was at my summer internship that my good friend Laura Geraghty had been in a car wreck the night before and she was in the hospital. I rushed to the hospital because Jen said it was pretty bad and by the time that I got there she had passed away. I will never forget that moment and the days/weeks following it. My world was brought to a halt and I didn't know how to handle it. What do you do when you are only 19 and you have a friend that is taken from this world suddenly?
Thinking back to those days that followed, I remember the time spent with friends talking about Laura and what we loved so much about her...attempting to figure out why this would happen. I remember talking to her family- her older siblings that we all looked up to her, her parents that we loved and had grown up around, and I remember going to her funeral and not being able to breathe.
Thinking back to those days that followed, I remember the time spent with friends talking about Laura and what we loved so much about her...attempting to figure out why this would happen. I remember talking to her family- her older siblings that we all looked up to her, her parents that we loved and had grown up around, and I remember going to her funeral and not being able to breathe.
Now five years later after that tragic event, I had to take some time to reflect on the time that has passed. The thing that upset me the most about Laura's accident was that she was only 19 and hadn't even begun her life. Everything that you look forward to when you are a little kid was right in front of her- but she never got to live it. And now here all of her friends are at 24, almost 25 years old...experienced and graduated from college, have jobs, are doing "big kid" things and buying houses, getting married or still searching for that one. I think of what she would be doing now and wonder how different our lives would be if she wouldn't have been taken from us. Although I don't have any of those answers as to what she would have been, I do know that when I think back to the time Laura was with us- she lived life to the fullest, was a wonderful friend, had a heart full of love, and a smile that lit up a room. And I know that she's up in heaven looking down on all of us; laughing along with us during the good times and wrapping her arms around us during the bad.
And five years after that tragic day, the only emotion that I have left is to rejoice at the time that God has given us all here and the wonderful friends and family that surround all of us daily. I am thankful of my friendships that I have with all my high school friends and those times that we get to catch up. I'm thankful that we have each other to talk to about this and can be there to comfort each other when we are sad and rejoice with each other when we are happy. And I'm thankful for the time that Laura was with us and the joy that she brought to our lives and that she continues to watch after us each and every day. There is not a day that passes that I don't think of her, but we will never forget her smile, loving heart, and how much we will always miss her! Love you Laura :)
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