Had only ever seen her name floating over the Twitterverse here and there via her mother's tweets. Quickly fell in love with her mom's bitchy sass, and had only recently started following her blog and Twitter updates.
And then Maddie died. Tuesday. Just like that.
And I saw it come across my TweetDeck and I was just frozen. One minute, her mother posted that they were at the hospital and intubating Maddie, and you could just read the utter fear in her voice, 140 characters or not. And the next, came a link to a post on their blog sadly notifying the world that it had lost a light.
And I felt punched in the gut.
And can't seem to swallow the lump in my throat.
And I didn't even know her. Or her parents. Or her family and friends. Or anything.
And the news keeps flashing flashing flashing updates on the Sandra Cantu kidnapping-turned-murder over in Tracey. And Saia said this morning, "She looked so happy, Mama," when they showed the surveillance video of the 8-year-old just skipping across the street in her neighborhood, as carefree as you please.
And then she was gone. Just like that.
And my heart is so heavy at the thought. At how easy it is for all this to just slip away. From one minute to the next. All gone. And then what do you do? What would I do? How do you go on? How do you face the world? Wake up the next morning? Take breaths that your child will never again be able to do? How do you begin to even try to live again?
So, in honor of Maddie, a little girl taken away from her parents all too soon, and for every child fighting for another day, and for the loved ones they leave behind, please visit the Spohrs website and help out if you can.
Both of these mom bloggers have also done amazing jobs at getting the information out to others who'd like to help out, or contribute, or March for Maddie, or just pass on their condolences to the family, so you should really drop by their sites if you can and show your support for their efforts:
 AMomTwoBoys |
And I know you don't know these people any more than I do, but yeah, in a way you do. And so do I. 'Cause they could be any one of us. At any time.
And, really, the world is just too small a place for us all to act like strangers.
5 comments:
Wow. I don't know what to say except that my reasons for helping are just like anyone (and everyone) else's... it's all I can do. And to be honest, it's actually very selfish of me because I need to help. Somehow, some way, I need to help because I am just devastated by Maddie's passing and the only way I know how to cope is to do whatever it is I can... and believe me, I'm not doing much.
Thank you for passing the information on to your readers.
That is absolutely heartbreaking. I can't even comprehend the loss of a child -- there's nothing worse than that. I will definitely take some time to visit those sites. Thanks for sharing.
This is so sad. Thanks for sharing.
Hi and welcome to MBC!
Unimaginable. So, so sad...
I didn't hear about Maddie until after her passing, but I can tell how many people she touched through her story. My heart just aches for her family and what they are going through. I can't even imagine.
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