I received an email from my friend Kris yesterday and was saddened by the news she had passed onto me regarding her friend Laura:

One of my good friends from high school, Lisa, had a younger sister named Laura.  Laura was always hanging around our volleyball games, etc. when Lisa and I played on the team together.  Laura was always cool, especially for a little sister.  So fast forward 10 years and Laura is now a senior in college graduating.  Well, 5 weeks ago, Laura and 8 9 other students/teachers were in a serious car accident - a truck crossed the median and hit their van.  5 of the people died in the van and 4 survived, Laura being one of them.  She was in a coma for 3-4 weeks and over the last 1-2 was starting to show great improvements in her speech and abilities.  Of course, the whole time her parents and siblings were by her side, day in and day out.  They kept us all updated on a blog that they had, which was wonderful.  The past couple of days, they noticed that Laura was saying some things that didn't make sense and made them wonder if it was Laura.  Come to find out, they did a dental check on her and it wasn't Laura!  It was a different girl from the accident.  Laura was buried 5 weeks ago up in Northern MI...

Kris also provided me with a news article from her home town.

Thank you, Kris, for sharing this with us.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to the VanRyn family. 

Update:  Here are some other articles regarding this tragic accident:  USA Today, MSNBC, WTHR-Indianapolis, Taylor University.

Update:  Kris was at Laura's service yesterday and she forwarded me a link of the video montage the family shared at the Laura's service.  "You will hear her mom speak, then her Dad, older sister Lisa, then her brother's Kenny and Mark.  It's a pretty cool video :)"  Link.

If you have troubles with the link above, go to this link and then click on Laura VanRyn family tribute--you will then be redirected to the video.

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