Thoughts for Thursday: The Orlando Tragedies

Last week has been pretty rough for the city of Orlando... it's been very hard for me to comprehend and digest everything that's happened within the last week or so. I wanted to write about it but please note, I'm not a good writer and not very good with capturing all my thoughts.

Saturday morning, while staying with my Sister-in-law 2 weeks ago, I woke up to the news that The Voice contestant, Christina Grimmie had been shot and killed after her Orlando show. I never watched The Voice so I did not know who Christina was, yet it was so hard to hear. She was so young and a crazed-fan came and took her life too soon.

Then I woke up Sunday morning to another Fox News alert saying there had been a mass shooting at an Orlando gay bar. I couldn't believe that something so tragic happened the very next night after Christina had been shot in Orlando. I ran out to tell Lauren and we watched the news for a little trying to digest what happened. Throughout the day I kept getting alerts of the death toll rising, making it the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil. It was so sad to hear that so many people's lives had been lost due to an extreme terrorist. I didn't fully comprehend the gravity of the situation - and still don't but it's been hitting me a lot more within the last few days.

While in Atlanta, there were all sorts of Orlando United things all around - on the screens at the mall, on the radio, on the TV's, etc. and I had to keep reminding myself I was in GA and not FL. It was so touching to see other cities banning together to support Orlando and try to spread love and hope instead of hatred. There was a vigil in Downtown Orlando Sunday night and over 50,000 people showed up!! 50,000 people!! We did not attend but I heard it was amazing. All of those people in a tight place and nothing but love was shown.

Let's back up a few days to Tuesday - I woke up to news that a sweet, little boy had been dragged into the water and killed by an alligator at Disney. Once again, another tragedy in Orlando! I kept thinking "What in the world is going on in Orlando!!!" It was like the city couldn't catch a break! I watched the news with such sadness - I couldn't stop thinking how this family was at the most magical place on earth and yet, their lives were changed forever.

Living in Florida, I know that you have to assume there's a gator in every body of water but I quickly realized a LOT of people don't know that! Let's be real here, the child was standing in ankle deep water - I would assume that he would've been fine standing there. I also would've assumed that Disney does a pretty good job of keeping gators out of their water. I know they won't be able to get them all out because it's FL and they appear everywhere but I assumed the risk would've been reduced. This was literally a freak accident and it is so sad that a little boy had to lose his life over it. I can't image what his family is going through right now.

I know this post is pretty heavy and probably not very well written to capture the depravity of the events that recently happened but I am just now starting to digest all that has happened. With all of the sadness surrounding these events, people have banned together to support one another and have shown so much love and support for the city of Orlando.

Linking up with Annie