Disasters and Tragedies

I thought I'd start a new topic where we could express our thoughts, if we so desired, on natural disasters and tragedies in one place instead of having a new thread for each one since, thankfully, catastrophes do not occur very often.

So to start off, I'd like to express my condolences to the people of The Netherlands and everyone else who has been affected by the loss of MH17. Radiogaga80, I hope none of your family or friends were on the flight. And I hope the same is true for everyone else on this board.

There just seem to be so many tragedies happening. I'm getting quite depressed reading the news at the moment - the air crashes, ferries sinking, not to mention the Israel/Palestinian conflict.

Our community was rocked 2 weekends ago when a 17 year old boy from my son's school was murdered in our sleepy little town - stabbed in the neck with a broken bottle by a 42 year man - the father of another boy in the school.

My son had spoken to the boy who was killed just an hour before.
Just so hard to comprehend - especially for all his friends. Their beautiful world has been shattered.   

The sun is out today and it's actually blazing hot, despite the strong wind. It's summer and the tourists are having a good time - there's loads of cyclists on the road because 4 day cycling tour going on. People are chatting and laughing, having a good time, as you would when on vacation.

But at 3:55 pm, the church bells start ringing and the mood just changes. Suddenly I spot all the flags that are half mast. I turn on the tv and see a group of soldiers marching towards two big planes. Waiting for them are our king and queen, a group of ministers, and other officials. The soldiers are there to carry coffins of people who, just like me, could have been enjoying their holiday, each other's company, and the lovely weather right now.

Fortunately, no relatives or friends of mine were on flight MH17 and to be honest, the whole situation went a bit past me these past few days. But right now, I feel very sad.

Frankie: That is horrible. I don't know what to say. But I hope your son is able to talk to you about what happened, instead of keeping his feelings to himself. And that you have people you can talk to, too.

Radiogaga80: I'd been thinking of you so I'm very glad to hear that none of your loved ones were on the plane. I saw the ceremony at Eindhoven airport on TV and also saw the procession of cars on the highway, with people lining the roads. Very sad.