Early last month I wrote about Jessica Cormier, a young woman who worked for my father and stepmother and was murdered Jan. 3 not long after leaving Brenner’s for the day.
Mood music:
Last night I got a message that a new Facebook page has been set up in her honor called “Justice for Jessica Cormier.”
Pages like this are good for keeping caught up on investigations and other developments. It’s also a good place for people to keep coming and talking about the person they cared about.
In this case, it could be a good place for friends and family of Jessica to grieve together and help each other reach some level of equilibrium. So if you knew her, go there and help build the community.
I didn’t really know Jessica Cormier. I met her a couple times in passing. But to my father and stepmom, she was important.
She helped out a couple times at my parents’ condo, where my father has been recovering from a stroke. My stepmom, Diane, always spoke glowingly of Jessica, and she’s taking this loss pretty hard.
I hope her parents find peace and solace in knowing that their daughter is now an angel in Heaven, impervious to anyone who would try to hurt her again.
This is one of those events where you stop and wonder why God lets these things happen. I used to ask myself about that a lot.
When my brother died, when my parents divorced, when my friend Sean Marley committed suicide. In the aftermath of those events, I wasn’t on speaking terms with God. At other points in my life, like my struggle to contain OCD and addictive behavior, I was talking to God, but nothing coming from my mouth was making much sense. I was rattling off prayers designed to make my life safer and more comfortable.
My relationship with God has gone through changes in recent years. I no longer pray for the safety of everyone I know. I just pray we’ll all have the wisdom to live our lives the way we’re supposed to for whatever length of time we’re going to be around. I’ve come to see life’s body blows not as a punishment but as situations we’re supposed to work through to come out stronger.
There’s something else I believe: The bad things we go through — and we all go through the bad — is a test. I don’t think certain things are deliberately planned out, like a natural disaster, the death of a loved one or the break-up of a relationship. But I do think we’re tasked with coming out of these things as better people who can come through when others need our help later on. That’s what Mister Rogers was talking about right after 9-11 when he suggested children always watch for the helpers in the face of disaster.
I think the helpers will come out of the woodwork to guide Jessica’s family through this. It won’t be easy. But they’ll be there.
Mentioning this stuff may not help. But just in case it does, I took to the keyboard.
My thoughts and prayers will remain with the Cormier family. If you could keep them in your thoughts and prayers as well, that’d be great.
