Only two days ago, Dianne, a friend from my home community died, tragically. She’d been out driving her car on a Sunday afternoon when her vehicle was hit by a drunk driver, a person only three years younger than herself.

Dianne had been a friend in our elementary school. Though her brother Roy was in my class, it was Dianne, and later her sisters too, in the group of friends. Marilyn, a sister of one friend, recalled for me this week that she remembers her sister, Gayleen, Dianne, and me as part of a group spending time together at school during noon hours and recesses. At a one room school, we didn’t necessarily stick to our age mates.

I don’t remember Dianne at any of my early birthday parties, but I do have one of those small wallet photos we used to exchange on the rare years we had our photo taken at school. I located it in one of my scrapbooking albums, stuck into a page with other good friends.

Dianne was among the quiet ones in our group and I remember she did her work diligently. Perhaps she already knew what she wanted to do one day, as I already did.

Dianne in elementary school

Also I found her photo in my high school year book too, two grades apart from me. By then we’d developed friends more in our own age group.

Dianne, front row in the middle, Grade 10

The apostle Paul spoke of runners in a race to get a prize, and he adds in verse 24, “Run in such a way that you can win it.”

The obituary said “Dianne was a giver.” I knew she had gone on to pursue nursing after high school. I learned that Dianne enjoyed travel and that she cared very much about the environment, in doing her part, as well as “caring for animals that needed her.”

A lot years have passed between those early school days and now. We each had career,  outside interests, married, and raised a family. Occasionally she might join her sisters at our home town fair, but really it’s been years since we saw each other. That interval doesn’t preclude a care for her family, her sisters and anyone who had known her. What I read is pretty much what I might have expected of the girl I knew. Committed, hard working, and kind.

No one would expect what happened that Sunday afternoon, least of all her family. I spoke with her aunt this morning at church.  She told me that the collision happened quite close to home.

As challenging and tragic as this news is, it’s a reminder that not one of us knows the length of our days, though Dianne’s death was certainly unexpected and too early.

It’s also a call to live our life the best way we know how. Practise kindness, humility, love for others, and commitment. All these I believe Dianne possessed. For now, I will be praying for her family.

Rest in peace, Dianne. Gone too soon.

Carolyn www.carolynwilker.ca