Every year, around this time, I read through the Wikipedia article about the Sandy Hook Shooting. It would be good if everyone did this, it seems it has slipped from the memory of so many. But on this sad anniversary I am doubly reminded of the one thing that no parent should ever have to do: bury their own child. No parent should ever have to do this. While there are many tragedies which we will all have to face in our lives, I don’t know if there is any more painful than this one. Thankfully, most of us have never, and will never, face this prospect. But as I read every detail about Sandy Hook, tears streaming down my face, I know that the heartbreak I feel is nothing compared to what those parents went through, and are still going through six years later. No parent should ever have to do this.

And so, on this sad anniversary, a friend of ours will have a funeral for her daughter, Emily. No parent should ever have to do this.

As is often the case with my writing, I am not quite sure how to bring this to a close. Probably for these families, there is never much closure. No parent should ever have to do this.

But to end on a positive note, I would like to point that a fundraiser in memory of Emily has raised over $1500 in less than a week for an organization founded, in part, my parents of Sandy Hook victims. One of many organizations founded in the wake of that tragedy. Some other worth noting are The Catherine Violet Hubbard Animal Sanctuary, The Jessica Rekos Foundation and another one founded due to a different tragedy years earlier, The Scotty Fund. No parent should ever have to do this.