How Can This Happen?

Lori Coble and her mother were driving on an Orange County freeway last week, Lori's 3 children in the back of their mini van. They came to a stop due to traffic. A big rig truck came around the corner at 55 mph and didn't stop. He slammed into the back of Lori's van, killing all three of her children. Katie (2) died and minutes later her big sister Emma (4) joined her in heaven. Later that night, in his mother's arms, Kyle (5) was the last of the Coble children to enter the Kingdom of God.

How does this happen?

It's a mother and father's worst nightmare. The idea that they could lose even one child is horrific. How can it even be fathomable that one moment, you're the happy mother of three. The next moment, you're the mother of none.

How do you face another Christmas? Another birthday? Another day at all? Every morning for the past 5 years you'd get up, feed your children, play with them, bathe them, take them to school, tend to their needs, laugh at their antics. What do you do now? Now you have all the free time in the world and you don't want a second of it.

How do you cope? How do you return to your home? How do you face their bedrooms, their toys, their little shoes? You suddenly have no need for any of it but how can you possibly bring yourself to part with even one little bit of it?

How do you go on? You know you must. But how?

I'll never forget this family as long as I live. I'll never forget the faces of their beautiful children. Some people are angry at the truck driver. Some people are angry at God. I'm angry at Eve. If she had not first eaten the forbidden fruit, they would not have been cast from God's perfect world. We would still exist in a world without heartbreak like this. Whenever I hear of a child dying, all I can think is "Lord, come soon." It's too horrible. I love life. I love so much about this world. But a world where something like this can happen? I want nothing of it. Lord, come soon.

The Coble Family