Monday, November 7, 2011


November 23, 1966. Dyenna Rae was born, and without a doubt the most beautiful little girl God ever allowed to grace this old world. This year would have been her forty-fifth birthday.

July 14, 1967, she received massive head injuries in a head-on collision that also involved a third vehicle. She mercifully passed away two days later.

Forty-five years, some might say that time heals all wounds; or as someone once said, wounds all heels. Such a double-edged sword! I well remember when my dad died, my Grandmother, his mother, said it was not right, that a parent is supposed to die before their children die. The story of Cain and Abel, gives us insight into the parental side of the loss of a child. Perhaps that is the first recorded incident of a child dying before the parents.

I was a young Marine at that time. I didn’t understand a lot of what had happened. The Marine Corps was instrumental in teaching me about “after action reports”. Based on all the information available, you try to figure out what went wrong, what “might” have been done to bring about a different outcome, and what needed to be done to prevent similar future events. Suffice it to say, that I chose not to consider what needed to be done, nor did I make any effort to change.

Anyway, forty-five years later, I do miss her not being a part of this, or my, world. I once heard love described as: your heart has the ability to expand to allow someone in, and when you allow your heart to thus expand you have loved someone. In the case of a child, there is a special place in your heart where they are placed. When they are gone, there is a hole left...a hole that never heals, nor ever scabs over.

I truly miss my little girl. I know she is in a far better place. I have no doubt that the God who sent her here to bless and enlighten my life, also warmly welcomed her back and healed all her wounds, and dried all her tears.

When peace like a river attendeth my soul, or when sorrows like sea billows roll; whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul.