Thinking about Yashanee Vaughn tonight, on what would have been her fifteenth birthday. You know, my daughter will be fifteen in just a few months. That means Yashanee’s mama and I carried our daughters at the same time. A woman I didn’t know then, a woman I don’t know now…but still I feel a sharp, stabbing emotion every time I see her on my local news channel. I saw her tonight. She was asked what Yashanee would be doing today if she were still here, and I ached for her as I listened to her answer, because my daughter will be doing the same on her special day this Spring.
Devaney will be nagging me about her guestlist, she will be demanding more than what’s in our budget to make sure her party is perfect, she will be stressing me out about all the little details…and I will take it ALL, with gratitude…because of the tears I see falling from Yashanee’s mother’s face tonight on the news, when asked what her daughter would be doing – were she alive, on what would have been her fifteenth birthday.
To feel a connection with a woman you’ve never even met, because of her sorrow, all while praying to God it’s a sorrow you never experience…that’s conflicting. I see Yashanee’s picture on the news, the same picture I’ve seen since she disappeared, the same picture I saw when they found her barely-a-woman body, the same picture they show when talking about the charges brought against her boyfriend in her murder…and all I can think about is the daughter I carried in my womb during the same months Yashanee was safe in her own mama’s womb.
Happy fifteenth birthday, Young Lady. I know your mother would have preferred you celebrate here…but I also know that Jesus will wrap His arms around you in her place.
RIP Yashanee Vaughn…gone but not forgotten.
