A personal connection

About a week and a half ago a group of us used our free afternoon to go to the Ulster Museum.  We decided to go because it just so happened that they had an exhibit on the history of the Conflict in Northern Ireland, dating back to almost one thousand years ago (what perfect timing!).  As I began to explore the exhibit, I read each panel of information and looked at each display, but as I was finishing one area of a display, a small panel in the corner caught my attention.  It was a newspaper article and it was clear that it was not a significant part of the exhibit because it was set off in a corner and most people just walked right by it.  The reason that I was drawn to it was the date of the article; October 21, 2003; a date significant to me because it was my 18th birthday.  I can remember that day as though it was yesterday.  It was my first birthday away from home and I was still struggling to adjust to my new life at Calvin, I spent most of the day alone in my room, just feeling overwhelmingly sad and lonely.  As I was reading the article I realized that I am not the only one in the world who has such vivid memories of this day, for a family in Northern Ireland it was a day that they had been waiting for thirty years.  The article explained that during the first few years of the Troubles a woman was murdered and the details behind her murder were never quite figured out and her body was never found.  Her family was left to wonder, “Why?” and on October 21, 2003; they were given the answers.  She was murdered simply because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, an innocent victim to a troubled time.  As they interviewed the family members it was obvious that although it was a very difficult day for them, they were also glad that they finally had closure.  Reading the article brought the whole subject of the conflict here to a personal level, in a small way I felt connected to it. It is incredible to me just how small this world actually is, that a day memorable in my life could also be so memorable in a small country an ocean away.