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Somer’s mom has message for all parents

Posted Jan 22, 2010 by Beth Gaddis

Updated Jan 22, 2010 at 09:26 AM

I write about bad stuff every day.  You can’t avoid it when you’re in the news business.

Now that I’m a mom, it strikes so much closer to home.  I was watching the “Today” show this morning and Meredith Vieira talked to Diena Thompson, whose 7-year-old daughter Somer was kidnapped and killed while walking home from a Florida elementary school last fall.

It brought me to tears when she said, “It’s the worst pain that you could ever experience.  I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.”

She’s raise $65,000 for a reward for information that helps catch her daughter’s killer and has a message for all parents.

“I just want parents to know you’re basically living on borrowed time and to tell them that you love them. And when they want to cook with you and you don’t want to clean up the extra mess, it’s worth it.  It’s worth cleaning up the extra mess or tripping over their bike or picking up their dirty laundry, it’s all worth it, because at any moment it can be taken away from you.”

Click here to watch the interview, and then hug your children.