A couple months ago, my 4th grader played a soccer game against the 4th grade Newtown, Connecticut soccer team.
Newtown, Connecticut. Our neighbors. It’s a beautiful and charming New England town. Also the home of Sandy Hook, where one of the country’s worst mass shootings occurred. Sadly that’s how the world knows Newtown now.
Being a mother of a first grader at the time of the tragedy, and also having friends in Sandy Hook who knew many of the affected families… that day hasn’t left my mind much in the past 3 years. I have experienced so many moments of incomprehensible disbelief. The “why’s” and “how’s” and the other thoughts are often on my mind as I watch my daughter grow up, knowing that a group of her peers weren’t able to. There are really no words though “heartbreaking” comes to mind often.
I remember my daughter’s 1st-grade class gave an end-of-the-year performance the Spring following the tragedy, and it was heartwrenching. All I thought about, watching the children in her class, was that sweet 1st-grade class in a nearby town. Stolen from their families.
That soccer game on a recent sunny September afternoon was heartbreaking once again. The Newtown 4th graders, some of the kids from Sandy Hook Elementary School, played a soccer game against my daughter’s team. I kept my sunglasses on that afternoon because I couldn’t stop the tears, thinking about the kids who should have been there that day. I felt such sadness. 20 precious children who were never given the chance to make it to 4th grade. To play with their friends, to live full lives. The unfairness of it was crushing.
So today, I want to honor those children who should have. They should have been able to do it all, but they can’t because they were taken from this earth, far too soon.
Rest In Peace.. #SandyHookNeverForget