Sunday, December 28, 2008

Elegy for a student


On Monday I attended the funeral of Keri Shryock, a beautiful, smart, caring young woman who died in a tragic accident. She was a playing a role in a Christmas program at a megachurch in Cincinnati and fell from a cable 25 feet in the air, to her death last week. Keri was my student in her freshman year and because we both were members of the Chapman Community at Kohl Hall, Bowling Green State University, we worked together on projects for the next four years. She founded a coed club gymnastics program and asked me to be the faculty sponsor. She was a smart woman who always had a ready smile, though I know she battled depression. I am heart broken by her death. And I am angry at the church where she died, for putting her in this position, for feeling the need to put on Christmas "shows," as the megachurch preacher kept saying at her funeral. It seems like hubris to me and a great waste of a beautiful life that was just getting started.

2 comments:

Writing on Board said...

Horrible and sad. So sorry.

indigogirl17 said...

Thank you--she was an amazing and wonderful young woman.