A professor friend of mine told me that one of her students died in a car accident recently.. The student was in a car with three other young women, and one died, one was unscathed, and the other two were injured.

She said that all four were Chinese, having come over to go to school, and the one who died was a senior in college, due to graduate in June. They all lived together, all from the same area/town/city in China.

The professor went to a memorial thing for the one who died, and it was in a room with ten chairs, arranged in a circle. Clearly a small, intimate gathering, she hugged a couple of the people there and left, not wanting to take up space.

I shudder to imagine; thousands of miles from home, from family and what you knew. Thrust into a foreign land, trying to learn the language and get by while studying to make something of yourself.

Then, all gone.

I cannot fathom how that feels to have ten people show up to cry for you. And, a world away, your parents and family and childhood friends mourn, knowing that they won’t see you again.