For some, the pain will fade just as surely as the memories will become
fuzzy.
For others, the pain and memories will remain as vivid as a Halloween horror,
sending their lives down paths they never envisioned. And the memories will
never be fuzzy.
People no longer are wondering whether Summer Shipp and the Porter
children, Sam and Lindsey, are still alive. In recent weeks, we’ve all received
the jarring answer.
Now each person will learn just how the life-and-death question has
touched his or her own life. These two cases stand apart in the public’s
consciousness because of their nature and national attention they received.
For some, the stories represent just a couple of more bricks in an
ever-rising monument to crime victims.
For others, casual acquaintances of the families, the stories are more
personal. These people will grieve over the loss, hurt for a while and
eventually move on.
For close friends, family and loved ones, only God’s grace, and perhaps
time, can ease their pain.
The Porter children’s story represents every parent’s worst nightmare.
Two adorable-looking children, with all of life seemingly ahead of them,
instead were killed and buried in the dirt of Sugar Creek. Over the next
three-plus years, their mother, Tina, constantly reminded us of their absence.
I’m leaving Christmas ornaments for them to hang.
This would have been Lindsey’s ninth birthday.
Their father, who was convicted of kidnapping them to terrorize their
mother, drew little sympathy. To the contrary, loving parents could only wonder
how a parent — no matter how bitter in his marriage — could take away his
children and then offer tall tale after tall tale about their whereabouts.
Tina, meanwhile, suffered plenty — and publicly — as she sought to keep
the children’s plight in the community’s consciousness. At some point, nearly
every parent must have looked upward and thanked God that they never had
experienced such pain.
In some ways, the aftermath of Summer Shipp’s disappearance was similar.
Only in this case it was the child, Summer’s grown
daughter Brandy, who did the most public suffering. Vigils, special searches
and the hiring of a private investigator testified to her pain.
The face of Summer, who once owned a
Now, with the discovery of bodies, they must turn their hope into
another direction. They can only hope that God will bring them — and their
loved ones — peace.
As for the rest of us, all we can do is pray and mourn with them.