Dear Beth Or Community,
When we lost our niece, my family suffered a tremendous loss—every parent’s nightmare, the loss of their child.
On December 7, 2007, just five days after my niece turned 17, Leah Marks climbed into an SUV with five other teenagers. All of them were between 17 and 18 years of age. The three teenagers in the backseats did not fasten their seatbelts. The car hit an embankment and rolled over ejecting all of the backseat passengers.
One boy died at the scene, another has lost his arm and we believe is still hospitalized. My niece suffered brain damage and though we hoped and prayed she would recover, the damage was too extensive and she passed away December 13 in Birmingham, Alabama.
The driver had buckled his seat belt and we were told his front seat passenger had put his on moments before they went around a curve. The teens in the backseat probably never saw the bend in the road.
Please read my brother’s words, “A Father’s Plea”. We have sent them to the Miami Herald and hope that Leonard Pitts will run them in his column. Make a copy, post it on a bulletin board at work, and discuss it with your family and friends.
In our great sorrow, we hope by sharing the story of losing Leah all of us will stop and think about that one simple “click” which can take only moments but can prevent a lifetime of heartache and anguish.
Shalom, and thanks to all of you who have sent condolences to my family.
Sharyn Marks, Robert Peltz, Jeremy and David Marks-Peltz
A FATHER'S PLEA
By Barry Marks
My 17-year-old daughter, Leah, the victim of a fatal car
accident, was buried Sunday.
I do not need to tell anyone that Leah was unique. A beautiful
sculpture of an angel, the present she meant to give me for Chanukah
this year, sits next to our menorah.
Anyone who met Leah knew that she was not like the rest of us. She was gifted in ways that really matter.
As her father, I must tell you, her friends, that the greatest
tragedy is not that this amazing, beautiful young woman will not ever
realize her potential to make the world better.
It is not that her parents and sisters and baby brother will never see her again or that
you will miss her as I know you will.
The tragedy is that her death was unnecessary and meaningless.
Some kids die doing something dangerous and foolish. Some cannot
resist the allure of drugs or alcohol. Leah simply did not fasten her
seatbelt while in the backseat.
If we are going to make her life have real value, and keep her
death from being meaningless, we must find a way to do something with
all this. You, not I, can keep something of my baby alive and make sense
of this tragedy.
I don't know how it will work out but I am going to try to
fashion a campaign to encourage everyone to remember Leah each time they
get into a car and sweep the seatbelt away, or sit on the seatbelt, or
tell someone that seatbelts are not needed in the backseat.
Whisper her name to yourself. Remember her. She didn't die in a house fire or a
plane crash or due to a terrorist bombing.
There is nothing terribly original or interesting about this one little act we should do
unconsciously, but do always. Fasten your seatbelt.
Her name was Leah.
She was the best of her mom and me and she
was someone very very special to a lot of people. I loved her as I never
thought I could love anything.
Please say her name now and again when
you start to ignore the seatbelt, especially in the back seat. If some
fool tells you not to use it, even if that fool is inside your head,
tell him or her it's for her.
Her name was Leah.
And she was my baby girl who did not deserve to die.
