Unfathomable Tragedy: Lift the Savoie Family up in Prayer
Slidell is a relatively small town, where some people graduate high school and never come back. But, some of us choose to stay. And we are greeted almost daily with the gifts of how small this town really is. Most of my children’s friends are the children of my close friends. We are lucky to have our best friends from grade school and high school in our own children’s classrooms, teaching and loving our babies while they are away from us. Many friends of mine teach or coach my children, and what a beautiful unexpected blessing to have memories from 8th grade with the most precious hearts to grow up into incredible adults. Slidell is unique in that if you are in the 35-40-year-old range, we probably know each other or we most definitely have many many friends in common. We all seem to run in the same circles.
Which is why when the news broke yesterday that a student was hit by a car in the parking lot of Our Lady of Lourdes school during car line, life shifted into slow motion as prayers flooded heaven.
“God, please let that baby be okay!”
There was no name announced. But we knew it was a young girl. A first grader.
I thought of all of the families that I know and dearly love that attend the school.
I knew instantly that if I didn’t know the family personally, I would certainly know many friends of theirs.
Then, the news that the student, the precious little girl, had succumbed to her injuries.
A punch in the stomach and then the tears that haven’t stopped falling.
It didn’t matter at that point if I knew them or their friends. A family was thrown into the pit of grief and my God, what unfathomable grief it would be.
I looked over at my own five-year-old daughter and felt myself crumble thinking of being in the mother’s shoes.
The comments on every post were the same.
“I’m so sorry!”
“I haven’t stopped crying!”
“We are praying!”
To the Savoie Family:
We. Are. Praying.
We are begging God to wrap his beautiful and comforting arms around you. We are asking that angels come to your side as you process this.
Please know that all of Slidell is grieving with you. Please know that even if we don’t know you personally we hurt and ache with you. We have felt sick and have raw eyes from our tears that fall with you. We are rallying around you. Slidell is a big small town and we are holding and hugging you in the deepest of prayers in the days, weeks, and months to come.
If you would like to make a donation to support unexpected expenses the family is experiencing, you can do so HERE.
Though JUST out-of your age range noted, I did go to school in Slidell and remember many of those people. I’m still friends (or at the very least, acquaintances) with quite a few. I believe I remember going to school with her father. There is nothing in this world a parent should endure less than watching one of their children go before them. I am deeply sorry to hear this and hope that they allow God’s comfort into their broken hearts. I can’t imagine the pain they must be in. Please, wrap them up and love on them extra for those of us no longer in their immediate community.
What’s also tragic is, you probably know the responsible party as well?
Heartbreaking and makes me wonder, how in the heck did this happen? At a school! In those slow creeping car lines??