Final First splat draft of something that I have to do in words, despite the complete in appropriateness of all words everywhere for this job.
Dear Denise and Sean,
Surprised to miss you this summer, I asked after your family and just got the horrible news.
Oh, Anna! She was so beautiful and poised. What a loss to the world! I will always remember the vibrant beauty of your four playing together on the lawn. Your family are in our thoughts and prayers.
Please accept my condolences and my fervent wish for what healing is possible for your whole family in the fullness of time.
You are held in the hearts of your Peaks Island community.
With love,
- Dally
I will put this on a lovely note card that shows the view of the ocean we share on the island. It is stupid and awful to try to comfort this family. Words truly fail. The father was in the passenger seat, the sixteen year old was driving. She caught the shoulder on the interstate and over compensated, rolling the car. The father was maimed. The fourteen year old daughter in the back seat was crushed to death and died on the spot. The sixteen year old driver walked away "unharmed".
A condolence note is such a tiny vehicle to confront such grief. But a condolence note is all I have got.
Should I send it? Edit it? My goal is to tell these parents so they never need to be the ones to announce it, to let them know she lives on in memory, and to make them feel the comfort of a hug from a neighbor.
Help?