Elegy

Some very good friends of mine were dealt a fairly devastating blow, being told that their child was, indeed, diagnosed with a significant developmental delay. It was not a particular surprise, as there had been much indication that there was much not right with the child for quite some time. Nonetheless, the finality and permanence of a diagnosis leads one down the path of an inexorable, unalterable future.
I don't know what to say; I cannot know what to say. I am sad for what future dreams and hopes they had counted on would happen, should happen, for normal, regular families. I am troubled about potential pictures of the future that this entails: for their relationship, for the needs of the whole family, for the child's future. I am sorry for the heartbreak and tears and questions that flow upwards, whose answers may seem eerily silent. I do know that this child is desperately loved and, though they may never know or appreciate it fully, could not have been found in a safer and caring place than in their parents' arms.
I must confess, I am struggling with, why them, of all the people in the world? There are so many additional factors to this story, that this seems like yet another nail in the cross that they have been called to bear. So very many nails, each piercing their hearts...