Mike wrote a few months ago here about his take on parents leaving their kids in hot cars accidentally, and it really made me see things differently. After all, I'm the mom who forgot to buckle up her son while driving home from taking his jaundiced dehydrated 2-day old baby sister to the doctor, so I know that sometimes we forget things.
Trouble is, sometimes we forget things and there are tragic, awful consequences. Which we can then never forget. Like what Raelyn Balfour lives with every day: she accidentally killed her son Bryce.
Thinking, being SURE, that she dropped 9-month old Bryce off at day care that day, Raelyn ended up leaving him accidentally in her car all day. You know what happened. And as she said goodbye to him in the hospital, held him one last time, Raelyn promised her son that his death wasn't without meaning, that every day she would tell his story, no matter the reaction of those hearing it, in the hopes that in doing so another life could be saved.
Raelyn Balfour may be the most courageous person I have ever heard of. She made a horrible, terrible mistake, one that she pays for every second of the day, for the rest of her life, and she is not afraid to tell her story over and over and over. That's courage.
And I find it incredibly uplifting.
Photo: images.parenthood.com
