Each day the media reports the death of our youth by various ways: by accidents, bad health, shootings and the worst being suicide.

After marriage come children and family, parenthood, and we plan on the future and what is to come. I believe the worst shock a parent can receive is their child is dead; none of us plan on our children being taken before us, for we don't plan on out-tiring them.

Having passed through this most terrible time of having lost a 17-year-old daughter, my wife, Marilyn, and I, most certainly know the shock, grief, anxiety, and the why us?, how?, when? and many other things which pass in our minds.

Some of the questions have no answers, and we are left with only the grief, hurt and confusion, plus an empty space in our broken hearts.

One day a family has the world on a string, a good healthy family suffice of all of life's needs and dreams for the future, however, the next day, our life is shattered by the death of one of our beloved children.
After the plans for the funeral were made, the church was filled to the brim with friends, neighbors and some others we didn't know. After the casket bearing our little Amy was lowered into the ground, we attended the lunch at the church, given and provided by the ladies guild, then home to a quiet house.

I don't know how people without faith and prayers by others can pass through these difficult days, however, they do. Even with loads of faith, we travel on through the dark days and survive. Besides the shock of mind, there is physical pain, including loss of sleep, appetite and memory, along with accepting the grief.

We were told there was a group called Compassionate Friends, which was made up of and by people who had lost children. One evening we met with this group in Saginaw, Michigan, in a church, and there were some 15 or 20 people there. Each one stood and told the story of the loss of their child before sitting back down. Some had lost more than one child, while others had lost some many years ago, and they still attended to help newcomers.

The healing began there, and continued on as we joined a local group at Port Huron Hospital, headed up by an old school friend and his wife, Victor Levitt and Lorain. They had lost a teenage son, who was run over by a hit-and-run driver in St. Clair, Michigan, and they began a group meeting for others. As the months and years rolled along, healing began, and we are left with the memory and the always-empty chair.

So you see, we do heal and we are able to pick up the pieces and continue on with our lives. An award is given to the one who contributed the most to the high school music band of Cros-Lex High School. It is in memory of Amy Taton and is called the Spirit Award, given along with other monetary awards.

Amy's best friend, Lisa Kenny, lives in Sandusky, Michigan, and we see her at intervals over tea or lunch. So we are not alone, for we have her best friend to confide in and to remind us of her life on this earth. The Holy Bible states a man can lose his family, treasures and possessions, and still survive, perhaps more than once. So we do heal, and so will many others as we move on in life. An Irish saying states "when a flower on earth is taken, another is planted in Heaven." And the Bible states, "This, too, shall pass."