A Rational Decision

Once there was a girl named Suzanne.  She was a teenage girl who was always happy and positive.  She got along with just about everyone that she met, but she was especially close to her mom.  They would often talk to each other about how their day was and just spend time together.  Sometimes they would go on trips road trips together.  Her mom would always forget to put her seatbelt on and Suzanne would tease her about that.  It was little things like that which made them feel even closer.  One day, her mom had to go to Chicago for a conference.  She was a little sad that her mom had to leave, since they were so close, but she was also glad that her mom was given the opportunity to travel and present her ideas to others. The day finally came when Suzanne’s mom was leaving for Chicago.  Suzanne’s mom gave her a hug and told her that she would be back later that night.  Time went by and when Suzanne’s mom called to say she was getting ready to drive back home, Suzanne begged her mom to stay in Chicago over the night because it was so late and she was worried that her mom would get tired on the way back.  Also, she told her mom that she should go visit some of the tourist attractions in the area.  She is always so busy that Suzanne felt she deserved a break.  Her mom hesitantly agreed and said that she would be home by 6 PM the next day at the very latest.  The next day comes and it is 7 PM.  Suzanne figures that her mom just ran into heavy traffic and will be home soon.  Not long afterwards the phone rings.  Suzanne answers it to discover that the police were on the other end.  They informed her that her mom had been stabbed to death late last night after getting out of her car to walk half of a mile to the hotel.  Her body was not discovered until around noon the following day and after going through what possessions she still had, they found her home phone number, by which they were talking to Suzanne.  Suzanne was devastated that her mother had been killed.  It especially hurt her that she still would have been alive if she had not told her to stay in Chicago.  She saw what had happened as her responsibility and for a brief time became suicidal.  It took a long time for her friends and others to counsel her and for her to clear her head.  Her friends reminded her that there was no way that she could have been able to predict what happened and that the only reason why she asked her mother to wait before traveling back so soon was because she cared about her.  Eventually, Suzanne, who still deeply missed her mother, was able to recognize that she was not to blame for her mother’s death.