The house at the corner of Lyndale Park and Weston Road was decorated so beautifully, for every holiday.
Christmas, Halloween — whatever the occasion, it stood out as a place of celebration.
And because the house is located on such a well-traveled, main road — just a few yards from Merritt Parkway Exit 42 — every Westporter knew it.
Now we know it for another reason.
Thursday’s tragedy stunned Westporters. We grieved for a young girl, her life cut unspeakably short. We felt the anguish of her mother, who for unfathomable reasons believed there was only one way out of her pain. We despaired for other family members, who will forever be haunted by what happened that day.
We thought of friends and classmates of the mother and girls in that house. They suffer now too, as collateral damage.
1 Lyndale Park is off Weston Road, near Merritt Parkway northbound Exit 42.
We’ll continue to drive by the house on the corner of Lyndale Park and Weston Road. The police, yellow tape and TV crews will soon be gone.
Yet it will never be decorated for the holidays again. Now, we will know it for another, much more solemn reason.
Each time we pass, we should think about the people who lived there.
And we should remember that — no matter how beautiful the decorations may look, or how bright the lights shine — we never know what goes on behind closed doors.
On Lyndale Park, or anywhere else in town.