• Before my junior year in high school, I returned from a Boy Scout canoeing trip to discover my sister had been killed in a car crash. I will never forget the sadness of the moment when I walked into the house, which was filled with

what seemed like half the caring and wonderful town of De Smet, to find my Mom and Dad there grieving. It was near the end of that summer, but the beginning of a long period of mourning for my family and me.
• There were lessons that came to me after my sister's death. I realized how important support from a community could be. Consolation came from our friends, neighbors, church community, as well as people who we barely knew. It seemed more about their presence, and not their words. I noticed there were people who had trouble themselves dealing with such loss, and they sort of disappeared.
• Also I realized that a funeral is not exactly a time of closure for a family, but really just the be

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