Tuesday, October 14, 2003

Gaby was in our homegroup in Germany - a devoutly Catholic girl (18 when we started, just like me..) in a Lutheran homegroup. She is probably the main reason I lost a lot of the preconceptions about the Catholic church that I had. Gaby signed as my witness when my husband and I got married. She was the first one of us to have a baby - a tiny girl, just under 5 pounds. They named her Yannah -"May the Lord have mercy on her".
Yannah was sharp as a tack. At 18 months, she was potty trained and speaking in complete sentences. I remember her explaining the difference between a rabbit and a hare to me when she wasn't quite two yet. I had my son, and a short time later we moved to the USA. The last time I saw Yannah and her sister Miriam, she was 7.
Over the years and the miles I lost touch with Gaby - first there were Christmas cards, then nothing. Last week a friend called me and said she had run into Gaby by chance. Last December, at the age of 15, Yannah for just a minute didn't pay attention when riding her bike, and ended up on the hood of a car, then on the road, then in a hospital. And then she died.
Gaby is now living my worst nightmare. And I am crying for her.

Lord, be with her, hold her, comfort her, through this incomprehensible thing.

posted by Birgit
0 comments at 10:42 PM