My Sister's Keeper

Life has a way of hitting you in the gut when you least expect it. I opened our town's weekly newspaper on Thursday looking for the grocery ads. Instead, I was confronted with the deaths of a seemingly normal couple from our church. They had three small children. He owned a small business. They lived in a nice quiet upper-middle class subdivision. The couple's youngest child is the same age as my preschooler. It would not surprise me if we didn't pass each other on a regular basis as we dropped our children off at the same Sunday school class, watched our kids play at the same community park, attended the same moms group...

However, this family was not normal. The police reported that there was a long history of alcoholism and abuse behind that perfectly manicured lawn. The wife had once filed for a restraining order, but dropped it. She should have kept it. Her husband killed her in front of her children, visited his parents; then, went to his place of business and committed suicide.

Domestic violence is always painted with such an ugly face. Like the "strangers" we tell our children to beware of, people who are abused are portrayed as uneducated, social outsiders, members of the lower classes somehow...That is why,in this town, where nothing rarely happens and an episode of Leave It to Beaver could easily be taped, a murder-suicide is so, well, shocking...Did anyone notice the signs? Her friends, their families? Did she pass me in the halls at church with bruises? If I noticed, could I have done anything to help her, her children?

One thing is for certain, I will try to be a bit more diligent and a little less superficial in the future. Perhaps, there is nothing that I personally could have done for this fellow mom. But, I will be a bit more vigilant in case someone else in a neighboring cul-de-sac needs aid. The weekly post is an awful reminder that I am my sister's keeper.