We as a people have gone through horrendous hardships throughout history. At the same time we have read and learned of many miracles that Hashem performed to save our people. Today, as I listened to the horrendous news from Texas where once again a very sick 18-year-old decided to kill at least 21 people, all innocent, whether they were 50 or 8 years of age. I assume that by the time our paper goes to print the victim count will be higher.
Even in such a tragic setting there are miracles: The children who escaped without having been shot, the children who happened to stay at home from school that day, and the miracles that we will hear of eventually. There will be people who were shot and will be saved through the hands of medical professionals. At this moment I doubt that any of the participants are thinking of any good from this abhorrent act of violence. But it is there and it will be remembered in the future.
I kept thinking of the parents from Sandy Hook who went through this exact scenario and how frustrated and painful it must be for them to realize that little has changed. Guns are still everywhere and no one seems to be able to do anything about it. As an aside, I was amazed today when I heard that the man who shot a man to death on the NYC subway system just two days ago in a totally unprovoked attack was out on bail. His bail was a whopping $1. I hope that the judge is disbarred.
Each day, babies are born, transplants occur, new treatments for cancer provide more and more examples of miracles happening. When we were told that our daughter Naama had stage 4 breast cancer, the doctor was quite frank with us and expressed little hope. Two other times in her life she has been critically ill—both times intubated—and somehow Hashem has deemed that she should be well and healthy. B”H.
I was a witness today to a different type of miracle. I parked my car on Cedar Lane to visit one of my favorite local stores, Carly’z Craze. As I parked I noticed that there was a commotion in front of the store and that the glass everywhere and broken storefront were the result of a bus from the Patterson school system that had driven into the front of the store. Apparently just a few minutes before I arrived the entire street had been closed to traffic. The driver lost control of the bus as he was experiencing a medical emergency and passed out. Miracle number one was that there was not one person on the sidewalk in front of the store at the time. The second miracle was that there was not one child on the bus. It was only the driver and an assistant. Neither suffered injuries as a result of the accident. Third miracle is that no one in the store was injured. Shoppers could have been browsing towards the front of the store. The bus could have gone into the rear of the store, which would have had much more serious repercussions. Although I am sure there is much sorting out to do for Alene and her crew, many times I heard her say what a miracle it was that no one was hurt.
As I stood there trying to comprehend what had happened I was fascinated by the number of other shopkeepers from Cedar Lane who came over to ask what could be done and how they could help. It was so nice to see a caring group of people who obviously realized that this situation could have happened to them and were up and ready to assist.
The emphasis of what I write today is to share how often we tend to forget the little things that we take for granted. Each day that we are able to greet our children and spouse should be considered a bracha. Let us not have to wait for a tragedy to remind us of the miracles of life that we live through each day.
Nina Glick can be reached at [email protected].
