The dead cannot cry out for justice; it is a duty of the living to do so for them. Lois McMaster Bujold In memory of our dearest Laura Ann Smith, who was killed on June 7, 2003, by Arthur Timothy Truitt, a drug-impaired driver. Laura was only 17 years old. She is forever in our hearts and our memories.
A Broken Heart Still Beats
Friends In Heaven
Laura Ann Smith Cory Dale Otwell
Born July 30,1985 Born June 16,1986
Laura and Cory Died June 7, 2003
I was contacted by Karen Otwell, Cory's Mother, who saw Laura's Memorial on a different website. Since then we have talked several times over the years, becoming very good friends over the internet. In June of 2008 I had the good fortune to meet Karen and her husband Freck in New Orleans. We spent a few hours together, talking and laughing and crying together over our children. It has become a friendship born of sorrow, but bonded in love and understanding. When you look into the eyes of another parent who has lost a child, you KNOW, in ways no other person can begin to fathom. We all believe that Laura and Cory brought us together.
Karen and Me
Me, Freck and Karen
"Who better to softly bind up the wound of one, than he who has suffered the same wound himself?"
Thomas Jefferson
If Love could have saved you, you never would have died