Knowing tragedy can strike

My newest friend and I have something in common. Many things.
But we know tragedy can pop up regardless of the day, joy or season.
My mother would often bemoan the grokkles that visited our home town of a summer.
They think they can't die on holiday... The anecdote continued, but the point was, you don't expect to die on holiday.
My new friend and I know, that's not true.

In fact, we often leap to the tragedy in our minds. We see the terror and grief that awaits, just behind the casual smile of a swimming pool or car journey home. We understand we have no control over the fateful day we may say, I knew something was wrong... We'll say it because we feel the potential daily. One doesn't experience inexplicable grief at a young age and then go back to blissful ignorance.

No, we do our best to ignore the continual threat of the unexpected and, in our eyes, likely repetition of pain.

So we acknowledge it, push it aside and great it, with a great deal of respect. And then, we do our best to ignore it once again. But only because this time, happily, we were wrong.