Lightning might strike

My mother’s younger brother David was struck and killed by lightning at the age of sixteen. My mother never talked about it much; it was just part of her family’s history, something that happened that they seemed to have dealt with, and moved on. I always knew about it but there weren’t a ton of details to the story; he was on a golf course, a storm came, he was near a tree, and…four siblings were three.

Not too long ago the story of David came up during a dinner and I realized I had never really asked my mom how she felt about it—that sudden and violent end of her brother at such a young age—and so I asked her, “How did David’s death affect you?”

She thought for a few seconds and then answered, “It made me think that God has a plan for everyone.”

This was a remarkable answer for two reasons. One was that my mother is not a very religious person, and most of my extended family live pretty secular lives. It’s not that we are all atheists but religion doesn’t play much of a role and we rea…