This morning I walked into the kitchen to grab some breakfast before work.  Jack was sitting at the counter reading the paper.  He kindly slid the front page over for me.

There was the picture of the Virginia Tech shooter holding two guns and looking angry.  There was some headline about a child being abused.  There was awful news from the Supreme Court.  Three second glance and then I passed the paper back to Jack and walked away.  I just could not start my day with that.

My heart just breaks for all the parents.  The ones who struggled and saved to send their kid to college.  They helped them study for the SAT and then helped them decorate a dorm room.  This month they were probably talking about summer jobs- or maybe graduation.  And now it is over.  In an instant.  My heart just breaks.

My son has been out of college for three years.  He is married, working, and living in New York.  But when I heard the news I had to call him.  I just had to hear his voice and know he was OK.  Of course I could not tell him why I called.  He would say, "Oh, Mom!  I am not a baby."

There are just those times when we have to touch the people we love.  There are those times when we have to hear the voice or look into the face or grab the hand or stroke the hair.  There are those times we just have to know we are not going to suffer that immense grief we know all those others must suffer.