Triple dose of tragedy gets 2016 off to a difficult start in the Valley

The New Year got off to a tough start in the Mat-Su.

On the first day of the year, a father of 12 was killed in a car wreck on KGB Road. The next day, an avalanche buried and killed a snowmachiner in Hatcher Pass. Then on Sunday, searchers made a grim discovery when they found the body of a missing Houston woman in the Little Susitna River.

This trio of tragedies has sent shockwaves through several different groups of families and friends, and it’s a good bet that between them they’ve touched most people who live in the Valley in some way.

We wish to offer our sincere condolences to the families of Pyotr Kudryn, Dashiell Erickson and Diana Pittser; we know our words cannot dry your tears, but we hope our thoughts can give you some comfort in this time of loss.

Making these three events so much more difficult to bear is their proximity to the holidays. It seems cruel that such a happy time would be darkened by these events, but it’s sad a fact of life that often it’s during holidays that these kinds of tragedies often occur.

In the wake of such events, communities often come together in unexpected ways. In the case of Kudryn’s death, a Gofundme.com account had already raised $13,000 for his large family as of Monday. A fundraising account set up on the website to help fly Pittser’s children home to Alaskahad raised nearly $1,000 in just one day. And it’s not just financial support folks have offered. The search for Pittser, who was last seen on Dec. 29, included dozens of volunteers who gave up time with their own families to help find the missing woman. And in the case of snowmachiner Dashiell Erickson, the all-volunteer Alaska Mountain Rescue Group responded almost immediately to recover his body.

These small acts of human kindness may not seem like much, but when families are suffering with loss they’re often the only things to hold onto. Just knowing people care can provide an immense amount of comfort for those who are grieving.

During difficult times like these, we are reminded just how fragile and fleeting life can be — and how precious the lives of our loved ones are to us.

While mourning these tragedies, we hope you’ll take time to give thanks for all the gifts you have and count your blessings; make time for family, hug your loved ones one extra time and tell them you love them. You never know when you’ll get another chance.