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The world is not fair. You should know that by now. If you don’t, wake up and get ready for your ass kicking.
That is the way things go. Life will treat you poorly more than it will treat you well. That’s how things should be. If you go through more rough patches you’ll become desensitized to them and the good times should seem that much better.
Unfortunately, humans aren’t wired that way. We tend to let the bad overwhelm us and not notice as much of the good.
I’m that way but I’m trying to get better. So reading a story like the following makes me wonder if this is a good story or a bad story.
Jayci Yaeger died of terminal brain cancer at the age of 10. Her last wish was to see her father before she died.
Her dad, Jason Yaeger, is in prison on methamphetamine-related charges. While he had been let out three times to see his dying daughter, the warden of the federal prison he is in wasn’t going to allow the extended furlough needed for Yaeger to be with his wife and daughter during Jayci’s last moments.
This made the news in Omaha and spread around the country. Letters and phone calls deluged federal authorities at the South Dakota prison holding Yaeger and authorities in Washington, D.C.
Escorted by armed guards, Yaeger was allowed to visit his daughter. The next day, she died.
What do you think? Is this a sad story or a happy one?
OK, it isn’t that happy, either way. A ten-year-old girl died of brain cancer. If that isn’t unfair, I don’t know what is.
She did get to see her drug-dealing father before she died, so that’s better than not seeing him one last time.
Life teeters on the brink of tragedy as much as comedy.
The real tragedy of the Yaeger’s story isn’t that Jayci almost didn’t get to see her dad before dying. It’s that drugs and cancer continue to rip families in this country apart.
The search for the cure for cancer is just about every medical school student’s dream.
And drugs? Aren’t we still in a war on drugs? You think the Iraq War’s five years and 4,000 American lives lost are too much? Try the decades long war on drugs for far-reaching casualties.
In many ways, Jason and Jayci Yaeger are victims of the same problem. Neither of them, however, is the real victim.
The absolute tragic heroine of this story is Jayci’s mother. Not only will she now have to grieve for her daughter but must continue without the child’s husband because he’s right back in the slammer.
Worst of all, she doesn’t even get named in the story. She’s just Jayci’s mom. I hope that is enough for her.
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