The Sun Will Shine Again In Schoharie

The village of Schoharie is known for its tight-knit community, small -own charm, hard-nosed blue-collar work ethic, beautiful landscapes, peaceful farms, friendly neighbors, and quaint little shops and restaurants.  Not exactly the kind of place you'd expect to be the epicenter of the national news following an unthinkable tragedy. Before I went to sleep on Sunday night, I saw via social media how the Schoharie limo crash was becoming a trending national news story. It was still very weird waking up Monday morning and seeing Good Morning America reporting from Schoharie - live from an intersection many of us have traveled. This was our hometown. Schoharie is in our backyard.  This doesn't happen here. 

But it did, and none of us can quite wrap our collective heads around it.

We can't wrap our head around the fact that 20 people lost their lives on Saturday in the deadliest automobile accident in the US in nearly 10 years.  Many of those killed were just doing what they thought was the responsible thing - hiring a limo company to safely bring them to a party.  Friends, newlyweds, moms/dads, brothers/sisters, aunts and uncles, community leaders, Army vets, teachers and more, gone in the blink of an eye. Our hearts are heavy and our bodies numb just thinking about those people. It's been hard to concentrate on anything else.

We all have questions.  How did this happen?  Why did this happen? What plan was this a part of?

After a few days, Good Morning America, CNN, Fox News and all the other national outlets picked up and moved on to the next story.  But Schoharie, made up of strong, resilient and supportive community members aren't going anywhere.  With heavy hearts, they're here to stay - and so are the rest of us.

Across the country and around the world, Schoharie may be known as the 'the place where that awful limo bus accident happened in 2018'.  For us, however, it will remain in our hearts as the town with rolling scenic hills, family farms, pumpkin stands, quality people and historic landmarks. Once the dark clouds disappear and the black eye from the tragedy fades away, the sun will shine down brighter, warmer, and more comforting than ever on a little village that needs it the most.

It just may take a little while before any of us actually feel it.