Roses for Valerie

The desert has been unusually cold this winter, and the poor brat is reaping the ill-effects of playing sweaterless in the school yard. The wracking coughs soon gave way to watery eyes and a high fever. A dreaded visit to the doctor confirmed my worst fears -- pneumonia. How come things start falling apart the moment MOH leaves town on work? I was driving to the drugstore to pick up the brat's medicine when I saw that the access road was completely blocked off. There were cops everywhere, and red flares lit up the night sky. Oh no! I knew someone had died. It wasn't until the next morning when I reached work that I realized the fatal car crash had taken place right outside my college. The grapevine had it that the person who had died was not a student at my college. Neither was she an employee. No one seemed to know what she was doing in the parking lot of the college on that cold dark night. It's been a week since the incident. The crash site is now covered with posters, candles, cards and other memorabilia. One of the bigger placards is hand-written and says "Valerie, we miss you!" in beautiful cursive. Groups of teenagers dressed in black surround the spot at all times. Some of them come armed with cameras wanting to pose next to the pictures of their missing friend. I'll probably never know who Valerie was, or what she was doing the night her life was so cruelly taken away. What was the mistake that had cost her so dearly? As I see the distraught teenagers walking up with flower bouquets at all times of the day, I can't help but wonder if Valerie misses her buddies as much as they seem to miss her. Is she looking down from heaven wondering when she'll ever get together with them again? Will she miss spending Valentine's Day with her loved ones? Did she leave behind a boyfriend or husband who will mourn her passing this Wednesday [a week to the day she died]? I can't help but recall Yeats' words "Was it needless death after all?". Valerie's life [and death] has definitely brought on "a terrible beauty" to Valentine's Day this year.