The Bell Tolls Close to Home

We're so used to seeing and hearing news about tragedies in far off places that often times it just rolls off our backs. Death and destruction in Libya, Afghanistan, Somalia. A stream of bad news that starts to deaden the senses.

This week a tragedy at home jolted us into the realization of how cruel and unfair life really can be.

Two brothers 18 and 20 are being buried in the Alliston area this week after drowning together last weekend. They were cliff diving into Lake Huron off Bruce Penninsula National Park last Saturday when they were overwhelmed by heavy waves and undertow. Their bodies were recovered by the Canadian Coast Guard. A friend, a 20-year-old from nearby Cookstown, was rescued by a boater.

Gavin and Zachery Marengeur both had attended Banting High School in Alliston. Gavin was returning to the school this semester and had plans to study acting in university. Zac graduated in 2007, had auto mechnic schooling and announced last Friday that he had a job interview at Ford.

The loss is unbelievable for their mother, Cathy Marengeur. Mark Marengeur, her husband and the boys' father, died of a brain tumour six years ago.

A tragedy so close to home makes us understand the absolute truth of the words written in an ancient meditation and later into a poem:

Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.