On Wednesday, January 15th, my Instagram DM’s were flooded with messages from those I am close with and others I only know vaguely. January 15th is not my birthday, nor were these messages received with excitement. Each six word preview started something like:
“Hey, I heard about the crash…”
Before I even considered getting up on Wednesday morning, my sister, Maegan, and her rowing team were loading themselves onto transport vans in Florida. Four hours later, I received the gut-punching phone call from my mom that one of the vans was in a crash. She held her voice steady—but I knew she could sense my panic on the other end—and told me “Maegan is going to the hospital now. She will be okay. But a lot of her teammates are not, the crash was very serious and one of her teammates passed away.”
How was I supposed to handle this? How could I possibly help my sister when I’m a thousand miles away? What if she doesn’t end up being “okay”? How will I navigate everything?
While these types of questions were flying through my head, I rapidly learned I wasn’t navigating any of these emotions or this pain by myself. Not only did my friends wrap me in their arms as I cried, but those who I didn’t know at all were willing to extend a friendly gesture. As I cried next to one of my best friends on a bench in Duncan, one of the custodians came up to me and said,
“I am not sure what you are going through at this moment, however, I know that He is always there for me when I need Him.”
And with this, she placed a Rosary Ring in my palm. While I didn’t immediately jump to pray the rosary after she gifted me with the ring, the action of her comforting a stranger meant so much. And this was only the beginning of the kind actions my family and I were about to receive.
Within hours, I received upwards of 50 messages from friends of mine and Maegan’s, all concerned about her safety. At this point, Maegan was in the hospital, but her phone was still in the van. This caused more panic for those close to her because they sent texts and received no response, yet watched the national news broadcasts about her team. At first, I became overwhelmed with this new collection of messages. However, when I expressed this to my mom, her reaction was nothing but positive.
My mom introduced the idea that these messages were people’s way of letting us know that they care and that they would be crushed if something bad were to happen to Maegan, or anyone in our family.
It is far too easy to feel alone when things go wrong; however, this is often the time where we learn how loved and appreciated we are. It is a time to step back and recognize the amount of kindhearted people that surround us.
Since the accident, my family has received letters, heartwarming text messages and much more from our friends; but also those who we, to put simply, haven’t thought about in 10+ years. Throughout the country, rowing teams practiced in purple, white and black to show support of Maegan and her teammates. Additionally, thousands of people gave monetary donations to help the cost of medical expenses, offered their prayers, proposed moments of silence and set up other fundraisers. Acknowledging these actions certainly didn’t remove the pain I felt in my heart for the emotional rollercoaster these girls went through and have ahead of them. However, these actions made me realize that in these times of utter chaos, confusion and vulnerability, few things stand stronger than a team and kindness.
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Images 1 and 2 provided by the author