Community Corner

Joy Covey's Friend Reaches Out to Driver of Van That Killed Her

[The author was a colleague of Joy Covey's at Amazon. Covey was killed last week in Woodside. According to the CHP, Covey was riding downhill on Hwy. 35near Elk Tree Road when she was struck by 22-year-old Fremont man driving uphill.]

Dear young man:

I am so sorry this awful thing has happened to you.  I want you to know that many of us in Joy Covey's community recognize that you, too, are a victim of this horrible, tragic accident. 

I don't want you to allow your life to be defined by this. There are resources available to you to come to grips with this. I hope you avail yourself of them.  I hope that you give yourself permission to fully recover. You are so young and there is so much of life that is wonderful still ahead of you. You deserve to experience those things fully, with an unburdened heart.

And I want you to know that I say all this in the knowledge that there is at least a possibility that some measure of culpability could be assigned at some point down the road. It could be true for any driver that there was too much to drink the night before, or that a joint was smoked over lunch, or that there was an ill-timed reach for the cell phone. None of these things matter. What matters is that we limit the victims of this heartbreaking thing. We don't want you to be a casualty, too.

You have to mourn your own losses in this, for certainly you have lost some crucial innocence, but mourn and move on in the fullness of time.

And hug your family. Often. They're worried about you.

With deep regard,

Colleen Byrum
Amazon.com in the Joy years.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here