FOR HER

For the last four years, today has been the day where I remember how evil we can be to one another. Where I come face to face with the utter randomness of life and feel my lungs begin to tighten in my chest. I am sick of today being about fear, and anguish, and suffering.

With your help, today I plan to change all that.

What if today is the moment when people come together and inject some much needed love and compassion into an extremely dark day? What if instead, today is the instance where people I’ve never met take the time to give back to this world, refusing to allow others to take away anymore from us.

I want today to be so much more than the day my grandmother was murdered.

I honestly hate to ask anything of you wonderful people who take time out of your lives to come to my little corner of the internet and read my words, yet I feel like I must. I ask that you take a moment and locate an organization dedicated to providing support to families and victims of violent crimes and donate (click here to donate to the charity I donated to). Time, money, support, love, I don’t really care, just give back something positive to someone who truly needs it on this day.

Maybe you don’t have a single dime to spare right now, I completely understand, so maybe try instead to donate some of your time. If that even means calling up your grandparents, or going over and cooking them a meal and telling them you love them I’ll be happy with that.

Today I chose to donate $50 to Families and Friends of Violent Crime Victims. A charity here in Western Washington dedicated to providing victims and families with things like a 24 hour help line, counseling, legal services, meals, resources, and above all support in some of their darkest hours. Although I didn’t really have that $50 to give in the first place (maybe you can only give $5, that's perfect!), knowing that it’s going to help a family, or an individual cope with an absolutely horrific situation makes it worth my sacrifice.

I don’t know. Maybe it is absolutely pathetic of me to think that I can ever make this day something other than what it is, horrible. Yet even if not a single other person donates, at least I know that I finally did something proactive on a day that has always left me feeling helpless. For myself, today can be the day I decided to start giving back in her honor.

Someone took something absolutely precious from my family, but I refuse to allow them to continue to take from us year after year. I want to forever alter the dark meaning surrounding this date. October 27th from this day forward is the day that you and I bring love, and kindness, and support into the world in her memory. And if I keep at it, if people continue to rally with me year after year, who knows, maybe in 5 years this will be a day I look forward to because I know that it will be a time where strangers come together to provide selfless support to victims and shattered families when they need it most.

Please, send me an email, or a note in the comments and let me know if you did something, anything, in her honor. And if you would, please share this message and this goal with others. Lets not make a dent, but an actual impact in the lives of people suffering today. 

I wont ever be able to thank you enough for taking part in this with me. 

 

Comments

[Naomi]

Love ya Ash! Great blog post; very inspiring and thoughtful. I hope this day can become a better memory moving forward. Big Hug from San Fran.

[marti]

Ashley, It's hard..But she would be proud of you and the wonderful person you have become

[Ashley, The Accidental Olympian]

Naomi and Marti,

Thank you so much for the support and loving words! It means the world to me.

[Junket Juice]

I'm sending a big hug to you. It's a little late, but just in case you still need it, here it is.

[Ashley, The Accidental Olympian]

JUNKET, thank you. At the end of the day, hugs really are what mean the most.