Unimaginable Realities - For Anna See

Jack, 1st Day of School, Sept, 2011

 
I've had a few moments in my life, very few, where what my eyes see, my mind can't understand.

Friday morning gave me one of these moments. While on twitter that day, I saw this tweet, from Kate: "Please keep Anna, from An Inch of Gray in your prayers, they lost their son yesterday."

I stared at Kate's typed words, blinking -- confused, "...lost? Jack can't be lost...I just read Anna's back to school post Thursday morning. Her beautiful boy's photo was right there, he was dressed in khaki shorts and a blue polo shirt, leaving for his first day of seventh grade. The picture was just taken, it can't be him."

Looking at the tweet, I didn't want to click over to Anna's blog.

I didn't want to find something there that would make my heart pound even harder than it did with Kate's message.

Still, what I just read on the screen nagged at me to go and check that everything was all right, and when I did arrive at Anna's site, I let out a sigh of relief-- there was the picture of Anna's son, Jack: boyishly smiling, holding up a sign with the words, "7th grade," just as I had left him Thursday morning. There was no new post of tragic news. It had to have been a mistake -- I must have misunderstood the tweet.

I decided to read through the comments on her post, just to be sure. Midway through them, I sat, stunned, as I saw the messages shift from, "Wow! So handsome!" to "I am so deeply sorry, Anna."

It felt like there was a crack in the earth.

I buried my face in hands, and wept. Sobbed.

This made no sense. I'm looking at Jack right here, in the wistful back to school post that his mother, Anna,  published on Wednesday. She tagged it, "where did my babies go?"

Tears poured out of my eyes as I thought of how, if I'm not able to understand this new reality, how can Jack's mother, Anna?

Anna had indeed lost her beautiful son, Jack, when he was swept away in the torrential flood waters that ran through Virginia on Thursday.

That is the unimaginable reality of Anna's life right now.

I don't understand what my eyes see.

There's nothing we can do, no machine to turn back time, no method of making this terrifying day a bad dream Anna can wake up from.

But something tells me, something makes me positive, that if we post letters to Anna on our sites, sending words out to her and her family, that if we leave her comments full of love, wishing we could shoulder some of her pain, telling her of how her beloved beautiful boy is in the hearts of so many, that if we fall down on our faces in prayer for her, she'll find strength in us.

I believe this.

I have to.

Because nothing about Jack being gone makes sense to me right now.

And I can't bear the thought of not being able to do anything for Anna -- for Anna See -- who has lost her baby.

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If you feel moved to do something for Anna, please consider writing a post, or letter, or a story, anything you feel might offer her comfort, and link up HERE: at  Kate's blog, The Big Piece of Cake.

Consider it your card, your flowers, your support for Anna.
   
You can also leave a comment on her last blog post about her two beautiful children on their first day of school.

But there is one thing that I would ask of everyone - if you know Anna or have just heard of her: Please pray for her and her family.

UPDATED: If you would like to do something in the way of a donation, Anna and her family have requested they be made to Samaritan's Purse.