As I was scrolling through my feed on Twitter, I saw a very special tweet that spoke volumes in 140 characters or less.
"19 year old Gabriella Sicard passed away in a car accident," the tweet read. "[...] her dream was to trend on twitter help! #FlyHighGaby"
My immediate response was to retweet the hashtag '#flyhighgaby' and help Gaby Sicard trend, but the curiosity about and frightening reality of her accident had hooked me. I wanted to know what happened; what caused a girl not too different from myself to meet with fate?
It turns out that Gaby Sicard, a 19 year old college student at Penn State had been driving westbound on I-80 when she began to pass a tractor trailer. As she moved back into the right lane of the highway, she lost control of her car, which then skidded and ricocheted off of the guardrail, sending her back into the line of traffic. The tractor trailer collided with Sicard's car, sending it off the road completely, but not before it had tumbled over.
Gabriella Sicard, 19, passed away on December 28.
It's like any other awful car accident--a car totaled, a life lost, families left distraught--and naturally it elicited an emotional response from me. But I just couldn't shake it.
It could be that she was a 19 year old college student, loving her life and her friends and her family, looking forward to a bright future, only to have it cut tragically short. It could also be an emotional invitation to introspection, asking me to consider my own life, and realizing that life is way too short to waste.
Whatever it is that has me so upset about the loss of this young woman, I pray that her family will be able to heal and that she is fairing well in Heaven. She seemed like a well-loved girl whose time was cut much too short.
On her Facebook, she had this quote listed as a favorite of hers:
If this post is saying anything, it's that life is short. So, pray for Gaby and tweet her to the number one trending topic in the world--but don't forget to see yourself to the materialization of your dreams.
Hugs and a headline,
Stephanie
Hi Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteI wanted to say thank you for such a beautiful post. I didn't get to know Gaby personally, but I married into her father's family, and I think she would be happy to know that her story could help someone else in any way.
I do know that she had insisted on becoming an organ donor for that reason, that her family is very proud of the woman she was becoming, and they have been very touched by the support people have shown after this tragedy.
Again, thank you for your post, and your support of the #flyhighgaby trend.