No Wine This Morning

At the risk of alienating any readers who just want wine speak, I am going to preface this blog by writing there is no wine today; only heartache at the home of one grieving Princeville family.

Some may know both of my children attend Princeville Elementary School in Princeville, a small town adjacent to Tarboro where we live. Cynthia is in the midst of her second grade year, and my son is in Pre-K with the same teacher who made us fall in love with the school almost three years ago.

If anyone in the area wants to feel warm and fuzzy inside, I encourage you to drop by the school on any weekday at any time between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. and look inside a classroom where you will find some of the most precious children you have ever seen, excited to be learning and ecstatic to be with lots of friends.

When I took Stephen into Mrs. Gianino’s classroom this morning, she pulled me aside to tell me both parents of a young boy in Stephen’s class were shot and killed last evening at their home.

Immediately, I felt sick and completely devastated. There aren’t any words to describe how my heart ached.

She went on to say it was execution style, and that five children are now in custody of the grandparents.

This past winter, a small group of women studied the book of James. I was one of those women, and part of the study was to try to memorize the entire book.

While I did not memorize the book in its entirety, I was able to learn the first chapter.

As I drove home from school wondering why this horrific tragedy occurred, I started saying to myself “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, to face trials of many kinds because you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance.”

Those words seemed comforting so I decided to say the first chapter aloud to myself in the car.

For those who may be familiar with this book, you already know what the last verse of Chapter One says:

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

Wherever you are, whoever you are, if you read this, remember that at least five children for no reason at all became orphans last night.

It is my hope we may all try to bring comfort to those who are suffering and hurting as they struggle through life that just keeps getting harder.