DEAR EDITOR:

On Aug. 26, 2021, Persayus Davis-May was laid to rest. She was only 10 years old. She loved her family; she loved her friends. She loved life — and the color pink.

Some lowlife thought it was OK to shoot into her house, ending with a bullet to her head. She never knew what hit her.

How, as a society, can we condone this behavior? How can we just look away?

If you ask most people in the Valley, as I have, who Persayus Davis-May was, they’ll ask, “Who?” In the news one day and forgotten the next.

Since when did shooting innocent children become the norm? Do we now consider everyone, now children, expendable? This little girl deserved a full life. She deserved to go to school to learn. She deserved to grow up in a nonviolent society where children are protected and cherished.

She will never go to another party. She’ll never know what it was like to go to prom. She’ll never have her own children and live a life she deserved to live. She wasn’t given a chance most kids take for granted.

My heart breaks for this beautiful child who was cut down before she even had a chance to live. The unfairness of it all is mind boggling.

Please keep this child in your prayers, whoever is reading this. Keep her family in your prayers. I know she is in heaven with our Lord dancing on clouds in her beautiful white dress and crown; now is her turn to experience the joy of a glorious life beyond the stars.

We will miss and honor little Persayus. Her life was not in vain. Her life brought more joy to everyone whose lives she touched and they are now better for it. Run and jump and eat cotton candy all you want, sweet angel. We will see her again and will rejoice at our next meeting. Godspeed.

SUSAN CENTORAME

Canfield