Five Little Angels

Last weekend, a man set fire to his cousin's home after a long-standing family feud. Unbeknownst to him, his cousin's five children were inside sleeping. All five children died. This happened five blocks from my home. One of the children went to the same school as Kade. In fact, his classroom was right across the hall.

The Quincy community has set up a memorial outside the home. People passing by have been leaving flowers and cards. The school district closed school for this coming Tuesday, so that the children could go to the funeral.

*********

We were standing in the grocery line, waiting to check out. As usual, Kade was over by the candy, scoping out goodies that I'd probably say "No" to anyway.

"There's Camron," he said with a note of shock in his voice.

"What?"

"In the newspaper, there's Camron. I recognized him immediately."

I picked up a newspaper from the bin. There were the five children. Even though I'd already paid for my things, I laid the newspaper on the counter anyway, then dug out a dollar from my pocket. We brought it home and read it together.

"Gosh, I just saw him, Mom. On Friday, I just saw him. Now he's not going to be there. I mean, we weren't friends or anything. I didn't really know him, but I knew who he was. He was really funny."

It's just heartbreaking. There's really not much I can tell him. He watches the news. He understands what happened. And he knows what death is. The truth is that I don't even know what to tell myself. How can this happen? Five wonderful, beautiful children... my heart goes out to their family.

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