In the last 2 weeks I found myself surrounded by the death of young people.  A good friend lost a child at birth-emergency c-section and the infant died before they could get him out.  He never took a breath and there is one family in turmoil.  I came home from the funeral and realized I needed to take something to the family at the end of the block and check on them since it was the one year anniversary of the death of their teenager. 

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These events lead to memories of all the students I have worked with, who are no longer with us.  That is one thing my special education background and training did not prepare me for; how many children I would have to watch die and help their families, if asked, to get through that time.  Whoops.  That was left out of the education brochure encouraging you to go into special education.  Perhaps I was in a unique situation, for I did work with severely handicapped children, who are at risk for early death.  I worked with those who were anacephalic, hydrocephalic, had syndromes, deaf/blind, some with orphan conditions-those so rare that no one studied them as so few had them. That was just a few of them, but it put me in a position I never planned on when I did my training and kept me in a research mode most of the time,  for these were conditions not in the text books I had learned from. It was also a time when internet did not exist, or for that matter a computer, although by the end of my public school time we had Apple's and they were even putting hard drives in them!  Wow what advancements.  These new tools may allow one to learn about their condition easier, but they can not  save their lives or get the family through the ultimate end a funeral brings.