Being a parent is tough.....

As I write this, families are in mourning. A wife lost her husband, children lost their father and perhaps just as sad.....a family lost their only son.
How do these lives intermingle and criss cross?
One was a decorated police officer who has given 25 years of service to the city. One was a scared teenage boy looking for a thrill and scared to get caught with a gun he had bought off the streets days earlier. Sadly their paths crossed and tonite a wife is explaining to her children why they will never see their father again while a set of parents is mourning the loss of their 16 year old son. He's still alive, but all their hopes and dreams they had for him no longer exist. He will be in prison for the rest of his life.
Now before anyone thinks I'm feeling sorry for anyone, stop. 
There is just no way to make this situation better. Both families will suffer. A father will never get to see his children grow up, never get to walk his daughters down the aisle on their wedding day, never get to experience the joy of grandkids. A mother and father will never get to see their newly turned 16 year old drive, never get to take pictures of him escorting his date to prom, never get to see him get an education or to graduate, never get to plan a wedding, never get to have grandkids.
As i think about my own children, I can only imagine what these parents must be going through. He was a well educated young man who obviously went down a wrong path. It must really make them question what they did wrong. It's probably something they will ask themselves for the rest of their lives. People who knew the man and his family were all shocked to hear of this tragedy. I think that he should have to be punished for what he did, he took a father and a husband away from his family, but at the same time he is still a kid. Yeah he's 16 but he's a child. Kids have no understanding about how "FINAL" death really is.
My heart is heavy, sad for both families, sad that innocent lives are lost.
Parenting is hard, it's a job not for the weak or meek. All we can do is teach our children to respect life, respect each other and hope and pray that what we teach them sticks and they don't make a rash decision that changes their entire lives. I would love to put my children in a cocoon and protect them, but that is not how it is supposed to be. We are supposed to nurture them and teach them how to be upstanding adults and good loving people. Sometimes we as parents make mistakes, but you can never prepare yourself for something like this. My hearts go out to both families....