Missing Maija-Liisa: Life Lesson

It's been forever since I've blogged! I've either been too busy, too lazy, or just not bored enough. Today though, I am not busy, lazy, and I'm definitely not bored. No, today I have an important blog. Something that I should have written about on August 28, 2008 but had not, due to the overwhelming emotions that surround the events of August 28, 2008.

For those of you in cyber space who are local will know the events that I speak of. For those of you in cyber space who don't have a clue what I am talking about, on the evening of August 28, 2008 a pick-up truck smashed through the front of a Sushi restaurant in the city where I live. Two women died and six others where injured, including a nine year-old boy who is now in a coma with possible severe brain damage.

One of the women who past away was 19 year-old Majia-Liisa Corbett. I grew up with Maija-Liisa while the two of us were in dance together since I was about ten. She was one of the most beautiful wonderful people that I have had the priviledge to have known in my life. She was always smiling and she just had a very contagious lust for life!

Although I had lost contact with her after I stopped dancing in order to focus more on my studies, I am having a very hard time coping with the loss of Maija-Liisa. I find myself bursting into tears at the most awkward and inappropriate times. While going through the "Anger" phase of grief I even found myself cleaning my car obsessively inside and out (which if you know me that does not happen very often at all) after which I collapsed into the passenger seat and threw up out the side of the car.

As I think about the various times and places and awkward situations that I have had an emotional breakdown, I can't help but stop myself and think "if this is what I am going through, what must her family or her best friends be going through?" My heart goes out to the Corbett family, especially her little sister. I do not pray much or often and I do not know really how to pray but I promise I will keep the Corbett family in my prayers along with the families of the other woman who past away and of the six other victims who were injured.

Here is where the life lesson comes into play:
I lost a friend of mine last summer to a tragic train accident. As with Maija-Liisa, I had lost contact with her over the years and we eventually hadn't had contact for awile. It was after her funeral that I vowed to keep in contact with all of my friends at least once or twice a month. Now here I sit regreting once again that I had lost contact with my friend and will no longer be able to speak to her again.

I urge you all to learn from my mistakes!!! We all drift apart as we grow older and make new friends while maybe still maintaining some old friends, but please keep in contact with the people you used to know. Call your friends from high school every month or so. Get together for coffee with someone that you haven't talked to in ages just to catch up and say hi. If you keep in contact, call your friends once or twice a month, you will not regret not having that last conversation should something like this happen to you. And PLEASE, if you ended a friendship badly or had an argument with a friend, take some time to cool down but always make sure you call or talk to them as soon as you can to put it behind you because you never want to have that last conversation with a friend before something happens to be a bad one.

I wanted to talk about the bastard that did this but I feel as though today is not the day. The funeral is later this evening and I don't want to have to think about how she died rather I'd like to celebrate how she lived! I shall have to discuss him in another blog.

I love you all.

Maija-Liisa, I know others have said it already but when we all had a gathering at the dance studio in your honour, I knew you and the other woman that died were the two beautiful rainbows in the sky looking down on us! I know you will be there to help guide us through this tough time and I will think of you always during thunder storms as I used to think as a child that thunder occured when the angels were tap dancing!!! So Maija-Liisa... keep tap dancing for me!


P.S. I borrowed the graduation dress photo of Maija-Liisa from facebook, I hope nobody minds!