Kim

Today I prayed for Billy Graham and the Montelongo family.

Today is the one year anniversary of the death of my friend Kim.

She was on her way to work the first day after the holidays. A big rig ran a stop sign. She died at the scene.

In one of those weird twists of life, the driver of the truck was a private contractor driving for a friend of ours. So several people who knew him knew that we knew his victim.

They would say things like, "He's a good man, a good driver. He's a good father, he's got three kids."

I understand they were defending their friend, but my first response was, "Yes, he's a good man, but he's alive and my friend is dead. And why does his three kids and wife trump her two kids and husband? They don't."

I don't know the status of any charges, trials, or lawsuits.

I only know that I miss Kim. We met when she was 17 and I was 18. I was engaged. She had a steady boyfriend who became her husband. We worked together at a savings and loan. We both married young and stayed married.

A few years later Kim was the receptionist for a podiatrist and wanted to work part-time when her daughter was born. I'd been staying home with our daughter and also wanted part-time.

We became one of the first pairs to share a job. She worked 8 am -noon and I came in 1-5 pm. We did that for three years, until my husband's new job transferred us out of the area.

We moved back after eight years and Kim and I would have lunch occasionally. My niece and her daughter were roommates for a while so we stayed connected. The last few years we would run into each other and say, "We've got to get together and get caught up." We never did.

Kim loved Jesus, her husband, her kids, her family. Her funeral was a dark and drizzly day, common in central California in January. A crowd of hundreds shivered. The minister had a captive audience and he knew it. Kim would not have been amused. I wanted to call her and commiserate. I settle for praying for her family.