More sadness

When I got home from the Girls' Trip, my former boss and friend Nannetta had called to give me news on my former assistant, Deborah.  I knew it must've been pretty bad since I haven't talked with either of them in over a year.  It turns out that Deborah's 21-year-old son (and only child), Curtis, had accidentally drowned over the weekend at Village Creek after jumping in and hitting his head.  Curtis had some mental slowness, and the maturity level of a 10-year-old.  But apparently he'd been insistent on leading his own life when he turned 21, and Deborah had been up many nights worrying about him before this happened.  The paper said that no one alerted authorities until he'd been under 10 minutes, and I wonder if earlier notification to someone might have saved his life.  But the outcome is still tragic, regardless of that.  

Some people just don't seem to have very good luck in life, and poor Deborah is one of those people.  She divorced Curtis's father about 10 years ago, and went through all kinds of legal and monetary battles with him.  The divorce left her with almost nothing, but at least she got a good job at Sunair, and if there's one thing I know about Sunair, they take good care of their employees.  She was very dedicated to caring for her son, and and trying to help him make his way in this world.  I hope she can find strength now to get through this.  I can't imagine the pain she's feeling right now, and it was hard to find any words of comfort when I spoke to her yesterday.  But I muddled through the best I could, and will be praying for her and her family.