One morning

By Audrey Kletscher Helbling

Ron and Helen were out for a morning walk on Tuesday. It would be their last as
a couple. Helen, 66, was killed at about 7:30. She and her husband were in the
crosswalk of a Northfield street when they were struck by a pick-up truck,
according to news reports. Helen died at the scene and Ron, 67, was flown to a
metro hospital. The truck driver told police he stopped, but did not see the
couple as he turned at the busy intersection with a four-way stop. 

I learned of the tragedy when my husband called Tuesday morning from work in
Northfield. He told me then that two children had been struck by a vehicle and
one of them had died. It happened, he said, on the road near three Northfield
schools. He travels that way every work day and, in fact, had just driven the
route 15 minutes before the accident. It turns out his information was
inaccurate -- two adults, not two children, had been struck.

Yet, that news did not lessen the impact on me. Every time I hear of a
pedestrian struck by a vehicle, I can't help but get emotional. Two years ago my
son was struck by a hit-and-run driver while crossing the street to his bus
stop. That too happened around 7:30 in the morning. He was not seriously
injured, but I know the outcome could have been different. The experience
changed me.

Now as my husband told me about this latest tragedy, I cried. I didn't know it
then, but my pain would deepen. Later in the day, when a picture flashed on the
television screen during a news report about the pedestrian accident, I
recognized Ron. He was a former co-worker of my husbands. I could picture Helen
too, sitting next to me at a company Christmas party. I didn't know either of
them well. But I knew them well enough to know that they were a nice couple with
a loving family.

Once again, I realized how fragile life can be; how one morning you can wake up
just like any other day, but by the end of that day your life will have forever
changed. All the more reason to each morning hug those you hold most dear and
tell them just how very much you love them.
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