In the blink of an eye, our 16-year-old daughter was gone. She had just left our home with her friends to go to a Halloween party. She was riding in the backseat, and only traveling a mile away from our home to a friend's house. They were only a few blocks away from our home when the car she was riding in veered off the road. The car rolled over, Kailee was ejected from the backseat of the car, and died instantly. Her three friends walked away with only minor cuts and bruises. Kailee was the only one in the car not wearing a seat belt.
Just seconds before the crash, Kailee removed her seat belt to slide over in the backseat and take a selfie with her friend. It was that split second that shattered the hearts of so many. Car crashes happen more often than we are consciously aware of. You hear they weren't wearing their seat belt and died. See or read the news. But it always seems outside of your reality. Something that happens to other people. Why wouldn't they be wearing their seat belt? Doesn't everyone wear one? We never thought it would happen to us—to our daughter. We know that if she was wearing her seat belt, she'd still be here. Instead, the girl we called our “ray of sunshine”, is gone.
Kailee was very good about wearing her seat belt. We can't recall one single time that we had to remind her and never caught her without it on. Her friends were all in shock because she was the one that always made sure everyone was buckled up. She never put her car in drive until all of her passengers were buckled up. As a backseat passenger, close to home, not going far, she let her guard down and had her seat belt off at the wrong time. These types of things happen in mere seconds and when you least expect it. We are all guilty of a momentary lapse in judgement when it comes to how safe we feel sometimes; especially when we are close to home. We all need a reminder, that life is precious, and we have to protect always protect ourselves.
