College students, including myself, often try to get away with keeping candles in their dorm rooms despite the institutions' policies against having them. I always thought that the rule was ridiculous. When fire inspections take place, students hide their candles so they are not confiscated. We are in college; can't we be trusted with candles? We are responsible twenty-somethings. Right?
My thoughts certainly changed this past weekend after hearing that one of my former fellow soccer players was killed in a fire at her Boston University apartment on Aberdeen Street. Yes, we are responsible. Yes, we are old enough to have and use candles. But yes, we still can make mistakes sometimes, and sometimes those mistakes cannot be undone.
Rhiannon McCuish, 21, from Mashpee was a junior at BU and a standout soccer player throughout high school. She sadly and needlessly was killed in the blaze that occurred because of a burning candle in her dorm room. We can never be careful enough.
As soon as I heard of this tragic news, I remembered a news clipping I had highlighting the Enterprise Upper Cape All Stars of 2003; Rhiannon and I were both selected that season. I searched through all of my boxes of soccer and track memories and found this picture of her. And all I could think of is that I wish had gotten to know her better. The Cape Cod Times chose her as an All Star regularly for soccer and I remember reading her name frequently in the sports pages of the Times. But unfortunately that was pretty much the extent to which I knew Rhiannon. She was an excellent athlete who lived in the town next to mine, and from what I have read about her, she was also a great student, sister, daughter, and friend.
Rhiannon will undoubtedly be missed and remembered by many.
There will be a memorial service for friends and family Thursday, March 1, at 11 AM at the Chapman, Cole and Gleason Funeral Home off of Route 151 in Mashpee.
