Wednesday, December 1, 1999

Keep Your Head Up, Keep Looking Up

Lauren Townsend is one of the 15 who lost their lives at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. Her mother told this story of how a miraculous sign from above kept her spirit soaring:

"Exactly one week after the murders... to the minute the executions started, the radio announced that they were now going to observe a minute of silence.

"My first reaction was that I needed to bow my head and look down. But as soon as I put my head down something told me to look up. And so I just leaned back in my chair and I did look up.

"I saw this one little white cloud. And I started focusing on it, and imagining Lauren on it. And asking what she was doing, could she see us? Do you know how much we love you, do you know how much we miss you?

"And as I'm looking up, a hawk came up from the foothills and started circling directly above us. It circled in this slow pattern, and my heart just leapt, it just jumped in my chest.

"I didn't want to break the gaze, afraid I would lose the hawk, that it would fly away."

"Did I think that was Lauren? You bet I think that was Lauren."

"I always look back on that day and think, if I had hung my head, I never would have seen that. It was a message to me, it was a message from God and a message from Lauren: Keep your head up, keep looking up, keep moving forward."