My court reporter’s daughter had applied for some college scholarships. One of them almost made me cry.

A little over a year ago last January, a Jeep or SUV type vehicle was taking a turn off a freeway in Long Beach too quickly, and skidded out the side of the circular ramp, broke through the chain-link fence, rolled over a few times on its way down the slope, and landed top-down at the bottom of a cement-lined ravine. It had been raining heavily those weeks, and the ravine was filled with water. Only the tires of the car were above the water line. Witnesses rushed down to the overturned car and struggled to get the doors or windows open, but were unable to; the doors were jammed. By the time the police and medical team had gotten there and were able to get the driver out, she was floating in the backseat of the flooded car, unconscious. Resuscitation efforts on the gurney were ineffective, and the sixteen year old girl passed away. They say she may have been trying to get out of the vehicle herself; her seat belt was undone and she was no longer in the driver’s side. Within an hour of seeing this on the news, my court reporter’s daughter got a call that this was her friend. They went to the same high school, and used to spend the night at each others’ houses when they were younger.

The mother of the deceased girl is a court reporter in Long Beach, and the girl was the only child. The girl’s father, a district attorney, had passed away suddenly (heart attack or something like that) only a couple of years prior, and now the mother was attending her daughter’s funeral so quickly after having to attend her husband’s. My court reporter was at the girl’s funeral, as with some attorneys from the building. They said it was the saddest funeral they had ever attended, and among the mourners were many young people, friends of the daughter’s.

The girl’s parents had set up a college fund for the girl, and when the girl passed away, the mother put the money in a commemorative scholarship as a memorial to her daughter. I can’t imagine what making that decision was like; knowing that the money meant to go to your only child would never be used, but deciding instead to put it toward furthering some other child’s college dreams; to help with some good in the world instead of being bitter that your child’s future had evaporated senselessly overnight whereas other people’s children got to go on to bigger and better things.

There really is so much sadness, and it’s inspiring to see good things grow out of acidic soil.