Chelsi Petersen's death reverberates to Russia

I just got back from a week vacation in which I pulled my trailer up Hobble Creek Canyon, so word about the death of BYU track athlete Chelsi Petersen didn’t filter through until a few days after the accident last week.

Then it really struck home. I was golfing at Hobble Creek with a longtime friend, the uncle of BYU quarterback James Lark. I remember meeting Chelsi, introduced by Lark, who usually could look over at the sidelines and see Chelsi attending football practices. They were as close as one could imagine, practically engaged, when Lark chose to accept an LDS mission call this winter.

I bring this up because while on the first tee at Hobble Creek, Lark’s uncle told me how the news got to Elder Lark, who is serving in Russia, a very, very tough mission. Apparently, before Elder Lark’s parents, or Chelsi’s parents or even his mission president could give him the news, an acquaintance in Cedar City, who had access to a phone number where Elder Lark could be reached, phoned in the news of Chelsi’s death, that she had been killed in an automobile accident in Provo Canyon last week.

Needless to say, Elder Lark was devastated. His first thoughts were to return home for the funeral. He’d strongly considered returning home and debated it in his mind. It was only after long talks with his parents, his mission president, stake president and Chelsi’s parents, who told Lark their daughter would want him to serve instead of return home, that he found the peace to set aside this tragedy of his best friend and continue his mission work.

I don’t bring this up to discount the grief of the Petersen family at this time. I know something of what they are going through, having buried a son at an early age due to a traffic accident. Parents should not bury their children. An old Chinese proverb says it is a sin against nature that a parent should bury a child.

But I do remember my own mission and, for the first six months, how hard it was to compartmentalize the emotions I had for a girl friend back home. That she would die when I’d been out only a few months would be one big hurdle to overcome.

If anyone has any encouraging words for Elder Lark, I think he’d appreciate any effort by DN readers to ease his heart. When you are not at a funeral and do not get that feeling of separation, you miss an important step in the mourning process that leads to mending the soul.

If you’d like to pass on a word or two, I will forward them to his uncle and parents so they get to Elder Lark in Russia.