Last summer I heard about a child who had died in the area. She had had a terrible accident, the kind of thing that parents try to be careful about, but it happens anyway. When I have heard the story, parents note that it could have happened to any of our kids. That the only prevention would be never ever ever taking your eyes off of your child.

Last week I took my car in to get inspected. I took Will but left Aidan with a friend. As I sat in the waiting room, I marvelled at how everyone knew everyone else: the employees knew the customers and the customers knew each other.

When I got back to get Aidan, I mentioned that it was hard to wait in the waiting room with Will for so long. My friend told me that there used to be toys arond there that made the wait easier with kids but that the owners' daughter had died last summer and the toys have since disappeared. She had this horrible accident...

So the story is bigger than a sad accident. The family is out in the public. They fix everybody's cars in town. They tow cars. They help people when they get stuck, stranded. I'd bet more people know them than the mayor.

There's no hiding, no working things out privately. Their door has an open sign on it and anybody can come in all day and either poke at their pain with a prodding finger or drape them in their love and affection.