No Words

As you well know we lost a fellow student this week. 

As you also know there are lots of words in the English language. 

 Husbands who lose wives… 

They are called widowers. 

 Children who lose parents… 

They are then called orphans. 

 But parents who lose children… 

 For parents who lose children there are no words… 

 There are no words in English… 

There are no words in Papiamento… 

In fact, there are no words in any language that I know… 

 About a year ago I lost my 18-year-old daughter in a car accident. I gave up researching and came to this small beautiful island (Bonaire) to teach people who want to become doctors. I wanted to teach young people to become something I respect very much. Someday you may have to look someone in the eye and say that there is nothing else you can do… My daughter once asked me why I continue to come up with jokes all of the time… I told her it was because I love to hear her laughter. And for the same reason I continue to tell jokes at the beginning on my lectures because I also enjoy hearing your (my students) laughter. Because of this I can only say that any accident like this is tragic and it reminds us that every day should be lived to the fullest and that each and every day is one that we should not take for granted. Spoken on April 3rd 2013 by: Dr. Torik Ayoubi Saint James School of Medicine