Just Twenty-Four
(original version)

You always hear it on the news
the fatalities of the road
Speeding, fatigue, not concentrating,
or through no fault of their own.

But you never expect it to happen
to someone known to you
Someone so young, so full of life
with still so much left to do.

Just twenty four on her way to work
in the wrong place at the wrong time
Makes you wonder would she be alive
if she were a minute ahead or behind.

A life so young so tragically lost
unfairly taken away
Only to become another statistic
of the roads we travel today.

Yet still you ask yourself questions ~
what was going through her mind?
Did she see it coming just too late,
and know she was going to die?

In those final seconds of her life
what were her thoughts of
Just twenty four, too young to die
and thinking of those she loved?

But I guess we will never know
or why her life came to an end
There are no answers, it makes no sense
we cannot comprehend.

And still you hear it on the news
of road deaths more and more ~
She was so young, too young to die
she was only just twenty four.

© Christina
1st July, 1998

"I wrote this poem when I heard about my sister-in-law, Jennie Putland, was killed in a car accident on her way to work one morning. I can still remember the phone call I received from my tearful parents to let me know. I was in shock and couldn't believe a woman so young and full of life as Jennie was to be taken so tragically. I know that no one is immortal, but you still never think that it would happen to anyone that you know. It was indeed a tragedy ~ a life so young lost in this way.
RIP Jennie."

The shortened version of this poem is also featured on my site.
"Just Twenty Four"