"But Why Miss Ellis"

This past weekend and today at school has been some of the longest three days of my life. Friday during our last home football game one of our seniors passed out. At first the EMT's thought he may be suffering from heat stroke but then, the romor started among the students that Matt had taken some pain pills before the game. The decision was made to have life flight come to fly Matt to the hospital since it is a 90 mile drive. Time went by so slow as the game was delyed and we waited for life flight.

Saturday I got a call from my boss to update me on Matt's condition. The doctors were very sure that Matt had a massive stroke. My response was what? A 17 year boy in good health had a stroke. Who ever heard of this? Matt was in ICU and is at that time he was not able to move his right side. My boss asked that I call my my students in my guide class to update them on Matt's condition and to dispell the romors that Matt had taken pain pills. There were no drugs what so ever found in Matt's system. As you can guess my students were not only surprised but had lots of questions. Some I was able to answer but the question that they all asked that I could not answer was Why Miss Ellis? How do you answer this? There is no answer? I was as honest as I could be and told them that I don't know why bad things happen to good people.

Today in school we called the students together and updated them on Matt's condition. He is still in ICU and is being kept calm so that his brain does not swell. He is still not able to breathe on his own and he still can not move his right side. As the day went on students asked a variety of questions. Once again most I could answer but then one student ask "Why does life suck so much". Again I did not have an answer. I thought what my mom would say when life was in a down cycle which was "Well if you never had a bad day how would you ever know if you had a good day" Since I never really liked this statement I did not give my students this answer. I am sure I managed to say something but I have really do not remember what. I think this is one of those times when there is not an answer.

Please keep Matt and his family in your prayers.