Four Mothers

Yesterday Bambi, Robin, Kelly and I were standing outside enjoying the glorious sunny day while waiting on our children to get off their respective buses.
"Jake _____ was in a terrible auto accident yesterday. He was life flighted to the hospital and the are unsure if he will make it." Bambi said. "His mother Roxanne was my third grade reading teacher."
I am fairly new to this community. Bambi grew up here and you would be hard pressed to find someone she DID'NT know. But she is my grandsons principal. I met her at Kindergarten Roundup, spoke with her in the office in passing and worked with her in several school volunteer functions. A lovely lady.
We all still chatted, but in the back of our minds we couldn't imagine what she was going through.
As the children got off their busses, more news came trickling in. He was texting on his phone and lost control. He had only had his drivers license two weeks. Everyone had seen him driving his mother all over town with his learners permit, etc.
One of the children said that his teacher announced that he had died from his injuries. Being we are in a small southern town, we dialed the funeral home and was connected to the obituary line.
(I wasn't even aware there was such a thing) and we all heard the one line no parent ever wanted to hear.
"Funeral Services for Jake ______ age 16 are pending."
Such heartbreak contained in that small sentence.
Each one of us independent of each other subconciously looked around to see where our child/grandchild was and briefly imagined the horror Roxanne was going through, and then said a small prayer of thanks that it was not our child.