The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.

The Home Coming

by Dessa Rodeffer
Quill Editor/Publisher

29 September 1999

What a wonderful feeling to know our children are living their lives well, are giving it their all, and are living up to their potential.

It is heart warming to parents to feel their children do not waste a moment of what life has to offer them. For tomorrows are uncertain, and homecomings to our earthly homes come to an end, we do not know when.

Parents of the two teenage boys at Sciota and Fountain Green who lost their sons in a needless tragedy at a railroad crossing late Sunday afternoon, where lights were reportedly not functioning, will not see their boys coming home again.

These were sons who have already contributed much to our society, to their school, and to their community. All who knew them were aware that they had so much more they would have offered to the world. They would have greatly contributed to our society.

The Northwestern and LaHarpe High Schools which co-op in Thunder football, were celebrating their Homecoming this weekend. They are now sharing together in great losses.

The Homecoming has taken on a different meaning for the two schools as they focus on the boys being called home by their maker.

One parent told me, "That God calls home the best ones first." That certainly seems true this week.

La Harpe students have been addressed by counselors and it has been helpful for teachers, staff members, and students to focus on "The Homecoming Week," as a celebration of the joy Dannen Latherow, and Stuart Curtis has brought to their lives.

It is their homecoming, as the boys are now in their heavenly home, safe in the arms of the one who loves them most.

The La Harpe Homecoming game will be played, at the request of the parents and the Homecoming dances will go on. The homecomings are not to celebrate tragedy, but to celebrate the lives these two boys lived so well in their short years.

Each of us will have a homecoming someday. We know not the hour.

I hope that the spirit of Dannen and Stuart, who took part in all the good life has to offer, will live on in each of us. As they supported the endeavors of their families, may we support the endeavors of ours. As they supported their schools, their friends, their clubs and teams, may we support ours. Can we pick up the torch they have handed to each of us, and carry it on to keep their spirit and enthusiasm alive.

I am sure the prayers of the families would include for each of us to whisper their names often on your lips as a reminder that, life is short, so give it all you've got.

Someday, Dannen and Stuart will be extending their hands to welcome each of us to our final Homecoming.

The loss of Dannen and Stuart have made a ripple effect across school lines, and state lines.They will be missed, but let us celebrate the joy of their good lives.

May God bless the families of these two special young men they had raised.