The Happy and the Sad

Keith Lane

Keith Lane

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Conyers, Georgia
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Keith Lane
The Happy
Well, we had a birthday yesterday (Oct. 12th).
James (My son) turned six. Incredible to believe that he's already six. Seems like just yesterday that ............
He and Dawn (Mom) and Sara Jean (8 year old sister) took a day off from school to go to Zoo Atlanta and then on to Grammy's house (the In Laws) and the dinner of his choice, pizza from a local Italian restaurant. I drove over there after work to eat pizza and watch his new Veggie Tales video. A good time was had by all. He is the easiest kid in the world to please, and I get immeasurable joy just having him as my "best buddy".

The Sad.
One of Sara Jean and James' friends, a seven year old, is to be buried this Sunday. It's the first time they have been touched by the death of anyone they know. Her mom and Dawn are good friends at church, having been through three years of Bible study classes together. Last Friday, the friend's three kids were finishing up a week at their grandparents farm in Illinois when the grandmother call the parents frantic, telling them only that grandpa had severed his hand in an accident on the farm and that the girl was "on a ventilator". The parents were in Chattanooga, and were leaving to go up to fetch the kids anyway and weren't given any more info than that. What a hellish 8 hour drive that must have been. The girl was standing with her oldest brother (12) up high looking down into a hopper trailer of some kind containing corn from a harvester. The boy was holding her hand and she somehow fell in. She "drowned" in the corn and dust. She was buried for about 12 minutes and probably had no oxygen for most of that time. Grandpa shoved his hand up inside the machine (it was shut down) to try to reach her and severed his hand in the process. It was re-attached except for one finger that night. Meghan, the little girl never regained conciousness and was taken off life support Sunday at 1AM and died immediately. She was a great little kid who sang in the kid's choir and went to Sunday School with my kids. Everybody at the church is devastated. My kids know she is dead, but cannot really grasp the horror of the effect it is having on the parents, grandparents and especially the older brother.
I look at my kids and thank God each day they are OK, and breath a little prayer for the family of Meghan.
Hug 'em and tell 'em how much you luv'em every chance you get. This past week I have looked at my own kids a lot and my throat gets all tight thinking about the unthinkable. I just needed to write this all out to sorta help me deal with it, and you all are sorta family to me, in an odd kind of way.
Take care
Keith
 
Keith - I am so sorry to hear this and grieve with you, your family and Meghan's family involved for their loss. Loss of a child has got to be the hardest thing in this world to deal with. Our family's prayers for you and all involved for God's peace and comfort.

Greg
 
What can be said about a loss so tragic? Keith, I'll keep you and your family
in my thoughts and prayers, and I'll say a special prayer for Meghan and her family. I'm so sorry for the loss Keith.
 
Wow, Keith, what can you say? No child deserves to leave this earth without experiencing everything that life has to offer.

Your friends and their family will be in my prayers.
 
Keith,

So sad for the tragic loss to your friends. Similar thing happened to my youngest daughter when she was in first grade. Still affects her.

Enjoy your own kids as they are growing up. They will be gone before you know it. Hug them often.
 
Keith,

I am sorry to hear about the loss in you friend's family. Events like these point out just how valuable our families are, and how important it is to celebrate the milestones in life.

bill
 
"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
 Matthew 19:14
 
It's so important to show kids how to be careful around machinery and other things and not to play around things they don't understand fully. It's easy for them to get fasinated by the sounds and motions of machines.

From a distance I saw a tiny toddler once running in a playground and she ran under a swing that a bigger kid was swinging to the max height -it just missed her little head on the swing down through! The luck of the draw in milliseconds.

There is so much deadly danger around all of us all the time, both seen and unseen. Be extra careful for others around you and yourself, and don't lose your concentration.

But for the Grace of God we walketh on...
 
Crap Keith nuthin to say but that is crappy. We all wish that we could protect our kids from every bump in the road. Part of life is not protecting them from the bumps but helping them to navigate them so that they grow up strong and learn to handle things on thier own. I know you will do this for your kids.

As for the deceased child's parents and grandparents. Most of us cannot begin to understan the grief they must feel. It has been said that grief is the price paid for love.

prayers and thoughts for peace and healing to all this horrible event has touched.
 
Keith Lane said:
Grandpa shoved his hand up inside the machine (it was shut down) to try to reach her and severed his hand in the process. It was re-attached except for one finger that night. Meghan, the little girl never regained conciousness and was taken off life support Sunday at 1AM and died immediately. She was a great little kid who sang in the kid's choir and went to Sunday School with my kids. Everybody at the church is devastated. My kids know she is dead, but cannot really grasp the horror of the effect it is having on the parents, grandparents and especially the older brother.Keith
Click to expand...
I think I read about this one. It's really, really awful.
 
That is heart breaking news.
 
Sad and awful. I can't think of anything more heartwrenching than the death of a young girl at her grampa's farm.
 
lancefisher said:
Sad and awful. I can't think of anything more heartwrenching than the death of a young girl at her grampa's farm.
Click to expand...
Really, it's just the death of any child, anywhere. Between the ER work and police work, I've had to deal with this before, and it is just awful. I hate it when it happens. :(
 
Update: The Happy and the Sad

bbchien said:
I think I read about this one. It's really, really awful.
Click to expand...

First of all, Thank You for all of your thoughts and prayers this weekend.
Bruce, the accident occurred near Mahomet,Il., and made several newscasts around Rockford. Meghan was hospitalized at the Carle Hospital in Urbana.
Apparently the auger in the grain wagon was running at the time she fell in, and her brother was struggling to hold her hand to keep her from being pulled into the screw. Her grandfather shut down the power and told the brother to let her go and he'd get her out. At some point the grandfather put his hand into the grain and got his hand severed. The grandfather has had his hand re-attached, but lost one finger, and is still in the hospital, suffering some comlications as a result of blood clots. He was not told of Meghan's death until his wife had to leave to come down to Georgia for the funeral. It remains to be seen if the knowledge of her death will affect his recovery.

The funeral was today and a more emotional event has, in my mind never happened. Many relatives came down from up north to pay their last respects and they were overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and comfort poured out by the Clapper's adopted southern home. Our pastor, who is a good friend and whose wife is our daughters music teacher looks utterly drained. It's times such as this that one realizes just how difficult his job is. I honestly don't know how he and his associate pastor have held together as well as they have. Our pastor has two daughters of his own. His last words of the service were " I, Robert Brown, as pastor of Ebenezer United Methodist Church hereby transfer the membership of Meghan Marie Clapper to the Church Triumphant". That, for me was one of the most emotional moments of my 50 years.
The Clappers are going to start a foundation to support the furtherance of farm safety for children thru an orgianization called Farm Safety Just 4 Kids.
http://www.fs4jk.org/

Thank You all, friends, for your words and thoughts.
 
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