Saturday, September 4, 2010

Any Father, Any Daughter


Robert Schimmel, 60, comedian and frequent guest of Howard Stern and Conan O'Brien, died in a Phoenix hospital after suffering serious injuries in a car accident last night.

Schimmel was a passenger Thursday in a car driven by his 19-year-old daughter Aliyah, who swerved to avoid another car. The vehicle she was driving rolled to the side of the freeway. Aliyah is in the hospital in stable condition. Hopefully, she will recover from her physical injuries. Her emotional injuries will take longer. 

We'll never know what kind of a conversation father and daughter might have been having. They could have been arguing. Or laughing. Or planning something; normal,  activities we do everyday with our family. She could have been talking on her cell, responding to a text or an instant message. 

Robert Schimmel could be any father. Aliyah could be any daughter. In the dailiness of life, death can happen to any of us, anytime, but we assume it won't. If we plan an event, we expect to be there. If we part in anger, we take it for granted that we can set it right. Later.
But not always. Life is random, perhaps just luck that our heart beats insteads of stops, that our breath is followed by another, that we will get the chance to set things right before someone we love dies.
Living is filled with ordinary moments. But not always.

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