Our college family lost one of our own Wednesday night, once again underscoring the temporary, fragile nature of life. Kasey Jo Warner was struck by a vehicle and killed while she was out for a walk with her 3-year-old daughter. The man driving the vehicle was arrested at the scene for vehicular homicide and driving under the influence.

 

I had waved goodbye to Kasey just a few hours earlier, yelling out my window that I would see her tomorrow as I drove past her. But tomorrow never came. Kasey was only 28 years old. She left behind two beautiful daughters, her husband, her parents, other relatives and hundreds of friends. She had her whole life in front of her and she had everything to live for. She was beautiful, bright, articulate, witty, intelligent and full of life. We had a gathering for her Thursday at the college and there wasn't a dry eye there because everyone loved Kasey.

 

 Everyone.

 

We've had so many tragedies in this area recently. Death has taken away some of our best and brightest and it's impossible to understand or even comprehend. Some people believe that our ticket is punched the moment we're born; that when our time is up, it's up and there's nothing we or anyone else can do about it. Some people call it fate. Others call it bad luck. Some believe its all part of a larger plan that people simply can't understand or fathom. I don't have any idea. It doesn't make any sense. It's hurtful and harmful. It leaves a void that can never be filled. It's without rhyme or reason. It is, in fact, absurd.

 

Most of us can't fathom death. We don't like to talk about death. We don't even like to use the word "die" so we make up all kinds of others words to substitute for it. We say that people passed or passed on or passed away or crossed the bar or succumbed or expired. If you die in a hospital, it's possible that the final thing written on your chart will be "negative patient care outcome."

 

We can't fathom death because we've always been alive. We know there was a world before us but we didn't live in that world. We know there will be a world after us but we won't live in that world either. We can't imagine, understand, or comprehend death so we do every thing we can to avoid talking about it or dealing with it, even though it will eventually visit us all.

 

Ever since I was on the police department and witnessed death almost daily, I've tried to personalize death. It's so easy not to in this hustle-bustle constantly busy world. We read about death daily in the newspaper and hear about it nightly on the evening news. Whenever I hear of someone dying, I try to think about how I would feel if that was a friend or loved one of mine. I try to feel what their friends and relatives are feeling and enduring when the mighty, indiscriminate hand of death snatches someone near and dear to their hearts away from them. When I do that, those people that I read about or hear about are no longer just a statistic. They become real people to me, just like they are to those who know and love them, and I believe that makes me more human in the process of living my own life.

 

I've written in this space before that the leading cause of death is life. Nobody gets out alive and the surest sign of dying is being born. But when something happens like it did Wednesday night on a county road outside of Arapahoe, it suspends our beliefs and crushes our hopes and dreams. It robs us of a friend, a colleague, a mother, a daughter and a wife. It turns good into bad, beautiful into ugly, and hopeful into hopelessness.

It crushes our spirit and poisons our heart. It makes us question everything. And it makes us madder than hell.

 

It is believed that Kasey, just before impact, pushed her daughter's ATV into the ditch before being struck head-on. That's what Kasey would have done if there was any way possible to do it. She would have sacrificed her own life in a heartbeat to save her daughter's life. And I believe that's exactly what she did.

 

Because Kasey was already a hero in life, it doesn't surprise anyone who knew her that she was a hero in death as well.