Sadly, we send our condolences again to the family of a drowning victim. James Robert Shaver of Verbena died in an accidental drowning on Lay Lake on Saturday.

“It’s an awful situation,” Sheriff Kevin Davis said. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and loved ones.”

We couldn’t have said it any better. If this situation could be any more awful, it is because another Chilton County resident died in the same manner on July 22. That time, it was 52-year-old Verbena resident Robert Lynn Courtney, a hydro journeyman at Mitchell Dam.

Summer 2008 would have been tragic with only one of these deaths. Now, it will be a season we’ll remember for the wrong reasons.

If anything good can be taken out of these accidents, it’s the realization that life is fragile and short and that we should tell our loved ones every day exactly how we feel about them.