Kids, Think Before You Drink

On a sad day two months ago, I attended the funeral of a beautiful young girl of 18 a nice kid who grew up in the Spokane Valley, went through school with my own children, graduated last spring and, like all kids, had great plans and dreams for the future. That future is never to be.

A tragic car accident late at night on slick roads took KaLee Role’s life and left many friends and family with a deep emptiness. Most of her friends, including my own sons, never had had to deal with the death of a close friend before. The innocence of youth was shattered for all of them.

For those who knew and loved her, it seemed like the sun would never shine again. Movies didn’t sound good; no one wanted to eat and no one knew what to say.

I went through this, too, as a kid, when my best friend was killed in a car accident.

Life is not like what’s portrayed in movies, where death is over and we get on to the next scene. The terrible grief, blame and guilt left behind in real life usually are not shown.

As I sat at the crowded funeral, I was overcome with the deep love that people had for KaLee. Some of them read poems and talked of her.

She was loved by a young man who was driving when she was killed. He was badly injured and lay in the hospital, but his parents were there, grieving not only for the girl they loved, too, but also for the son whose life was shattered by this.

Spring is a time of happiness when kids think of graduation, parties and all-nighters. It is sad that every year at this time, we lose many kids over things that can be avoided - driving fast, drinking, swimming in the river.

I would like to believe that all the kids who loved KaLee Role would keep her memory alive by thinking of her when they get in a car. Time has a way of making us heal our wounds, but it also causes us to forget.

We can take comfort that she is in God’s hands in a better place, but the pain of her loss will be with everyone for a long time.

I hope that when kids start to do things that have an element of risk, they will think of this and try to visualize their own families and friends and the pain their own deaths would cause. Maybe it will make a difference.

MEMO: “Your turn” is a feature of the Wednesday and Saturday Opinion pages. To submit a “Your turn” column for consideration, contact Rebecca Nappi at 459-5496 or Doug Floyd at 459-5466 or write “Your turn,” The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane 99210-1615.