I spent the previous two days in Oregon visiting with my in-laws and also at the Willamette Valley Soaring Club's home gliderport.

Morning preparations - weather cooking already at 8:30 - late for assembly - towpilot calls - and then...

... discovering the tragedy of the previous day: Teen Theo Allen was killed in glider crash. He was our club's promising rising star, with so much ahead of him.

I tormented over giving up the planned flight versus the reality of the tragedy. After ten minutes of deliberation I scrubbed the day. Went to church. Lit a candle for Theo and shared my sorrow with the congragation. Listened to our young musicians recital following the church. It was healing.

At the afternoon meeting at Pangborn, members gathered around the coffin-like trailer filled with the remnants of the Russia sailplane, and rehashed all what-ifs and what-to-do betters.

On Monday June 13, the Wenatchee World newspaper brought a front-page article with the picture of the crashed Russia. I did not know Theo very much; but the article revealed how much he has already done for others in his seventeen years, since he was adopted from Ethiopia by a Cashmere couple.

In the evening I went to another recital held at the Grace Lutheran Church where a young musician Jessica Curry played her original piano composition, "Sorrow" which she dedicated to Theo. She said she was a close friend of his. Tears were welling up in my eyes; along with many other mixed emotions and thoughts...

There were so many what-ifs, but in the end, there was only one reality, an irreversible one ....