Billings Asked to Wear Red on Monday for 13-Year-Old Chase Lantz

Since learning what happened to 13-year-old Chase Lantz, I've found myself looking at my own little boy a whole lot. He's not much younger than Chase. I look at him doing completely ordinary things, things I probably wouldn't have thought twice about a week ago, and suddenly grief seizes my heart.

Because somewhere, another mother should still have all of those ordinary moments ahead of her.

I can't begin to fathom what Chase's family is going through. I don't think any parent truly can, or even wants to try.

Billings Middle Schooler Chase Lantz Hit While Walking to School

On Thursday morning, September 24, Chase was on his way to Will James Middle School when he was struck by a vehicle at Grand Avenue and Rehberg Lane.

Billings Police said the crash happened around 7:24 a.m. while Chase was in the crosswalk. CPR was performed before Billings Fire, and AMR took over his care. Chase was later flown to a hospital in Denver with devastating injuries.

Chase is only 13 years old.

I keep coming back to that number.

Thirteen is an age when you're supposed to be thinking about friends and school and what you want to be when you grow up. Your parents are supposed to be reminding you to pick something up off the floor, asking whether you finished your homework, or telling you for the hundredth time to put on a jacket.

They're not supposed to be facing something like this.

Billings Teen Chase Lantz Dreamed of Becoming a Police Officer

According to a family friend, Chase had already given some thought to what he wanted to do with his life. He dreamed of becoming a New York City police officer because he wanted a career where he could help save people.

Chase's family has made the extraordinarily difficult decision to donate his organs. That means a boy who wanted to spend his life helping others will still make an immeasurable difference in the lives of people he never had the chance to meet.

There are families somewhere who may soon receive a phone call they have desperately prayed would come.

And that possibility exists because another family is living through the phone call no parent ever wants to receive.

It is almost impossible to hold both of those truths at once.

Billings Will Wear Red for Chase on Monday

Monday, September 28, people across Billings are being encouraged to wear red, Chase's favorite color, as his family faces an unimaginably painful time. Chase's mother has asked Billings students to wear red in his honor.

It is such a simple thing. A red shirt, a red sweatshirt, maybe just a ribbon pinned to a jacket.

It can't take away the pain, and it can't give Chase's family back the future they thought they had.

But it can make something visible that is otherwise difficult to put into words.

It can show a grieving family that when they look outside their own circle of pain, an entire community is thinking about their son.

Billings Parents Are Holding Their Kids Closer

Maybe that is why this has hit so many of us so hard.

When you're a parent, you hear about something happening to a child, and there is an almost instinctive reaction. You look at your own.

I keep looking at my son.

He's close enough to Chase's age that I can picture the ordinary morning, the one where nothing is supposed to be the last time. Getting ready for school. Walking out the door.

And then my mind goes to Chase's mom.

There aren't words adequate enough for that kind of grief. There isn't anything I can write that can make it make sense.

So Monday, I'll wear red.

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Billings Asked to Wear Red for Chase on September 28

If you have something red in your closet, consider wearing it Monday.

And if you take a photo, share it. Fill Facebook feeds with red. Let Chase's family see how far their son's story has reached and how many people in Billings are carrying a little piece of their grief with them.

Most of us never had the privilege of knowing Chase personally.

But on Monday, we can make sure his family knows they aren't walking through this completely alone.