Hope in the midst of tragedy

A little boy named Asa Hill was in the news this week. According to CNN, the 7-year-old was in a car accident and died from critical injuries the following night. More than 1,000 people in the Buffalo, N.Y., community came to his funeral. While the service was by nature a sad occasion, his parents also wanted it to be a celebration of life. People shared memories, and there was dancing and African drum music.

To the surprise of many, there was also a wedding.

Though they’d been best friends for half of their lives, seems Asa’s parents thought a wedding was “superficial and not necessary.” Asa thought differently and always wanted his parents to marry. They decided to grant their son’s wish before he was put to rest and send people home with some sense of joy in the face of unimaginable sorrow.

Chances are each of us remembers exactly where we were when the horrific events of Sept. 11, 2001, occurred. I was about seven miles from the Pentagon, playing with my two-year-old in the yard when fighter jets pierced the sky and made my child hold his ears and cry. I remember nights spent awake, trying to make sense of it all — and wondering if it would happen again.

Today is the first official National Day of Service and Remembrance, a federally recognized time to perform good deeds both big and small. While, like Asa’s parents, we can’t do anything to undo tragedy, we can offer a bit of hope to honor the memory of those gone too soon.

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