You are all very welcome. At this point we are not typing our thoughts because they would get a rating not suitable for a public family board. Something is askew is a system that gives more rights to proven perpetrators of ghastly crimes than their innocent victims.
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=48272&perpage=50&pagenumber=20
Update from Prairie Lady:
"You know what folks? That loss of words is also a part of this kind of situation. Even my family and I just sit and stare at each other not knowing what to say to each other. What CAN a person say in this kind of a mess??? There really aren't any words to convey adequately what we are all feeling. I think many of you who can't imagine what it may be like to go through this really DO know and you may not realize it. I can see it in your words. So for that reason, when You say you don't know what to say..well, I understand because neither do I know what to say.
It's ok not to know what to say, because even in saying that, I know that you do understand, and that you are sharing the same kinds of feelings that we are having. Most of you felt the same shock and horror, the same anger, even grief over a person you hadn't even met, knowing within yourselves what grief feels like because you too have lost loved ones in your lives. We all share the same sense of senselessness, helplessness, wishing that we could do something to take it away or to ease the pain. I wish I could do that for my mother who has lost her very first child, for my sisters, for Barry who has lost the wife he cherished and didn't realize just how much until now. Alice's children who though young women in their mid 20's are now orphans having neither mother, nor their birth father as he also died a tragic and unexpected death around 1996 or so.
Most of you understand the limbo of not even having a body to bury and to grieve, nor any indication that she may be alive which could even be a form of denial at this point in time, yet we need some sort of hope to cling to.
Most of you do indeed know, and those who think they can't imagine...I think you can, and you shouldn't. It's too overwhelming. Many of you even felt that.
That ability to empathize and sympathize is such a wonderful thing. The fact that you took the time to even put 2or 3 words...I'm praying, or I don't understand, or I care...those words have touched me deeply and have been arms to carry me. I have been comforted in as much as can even be by your kindnesses and gentleness, your anger and you dispair. We have shared that together.
Because of you, I wasn't alone, because I too have had a very hard time talking. It's been very hard to talk to those in my family because their grief is so deep that to talk to them was like adding another burden to them. Our ability to comfort one another is impaired in that we are each so deep in grief that we don't have much to give each other, in terms of comfort. Like a candle burned at both ends
So, your verbal arms have ment much. Those of you with whom I have talked with were a further extension of that. I got to meet Second Amendment Mama on wednesday, we went for lunch together. She hasn't been a regular member here, she's from freepers, but I've seen her name on posts in this thread. I got to meet Tankgurrl and some others that I became familiar with on line. Each of them cared in their own ways and stood as a tangible outreach of this forum and freepers too.
Many of you have reached out in other tangible ways such as through donations which have helped many here in meeting even the bare basics of life, in addition to the additional expenses. Thank-you for that help.
Everyone did a most fantastic and wonderful job of keeping the news flowing, making posters, phonecalls, doctoring photos, contacting the right people, searching the woods, keeping people interested in what was going on...I have never seen anything like this before. For all of it, I'm grateful!
Lastly, I don't have words either to describe my own deep gratitude and love for all of you. Somehow a simple thanks is just not enough, yet I know you all didn't do what you did for a thanks. You did it out of the goodness of your heart. That much goodness is a blessing to see! Somehow i recall some words about casting your bread upon the waters and it will return to you tenfold...I need to look it up to be exact, but If its not out of context, may your return be a thousand fold!
Love,
PL"