These words belong to Margaret Childers but they could have been spoken by anyone who has lost someone they love to drunken driving.

Driving to her parents' home in Cooter, Mo., Laurie Smith of Cardova, Tenn., surely had no idea that within minutes she and her 7-week-old daughter would be dead, two more names added to the list of people who have had their lives stolen by people driving drunk.

It was the night of April 3, 1996, and Laurie was spending the week before Easter with her parents in Cooter while her husband, Greg, finished out a week of work before he would join them on Friday.

Laurie had just been visiting her brother, Marvin Childers Jr., at his home in Blytheville Ark., a scant 10 miles from Cooter, which sits on the Missouri/Arkansas border.

Marvin helped Laurie get his new niece, Mary, in her car seat and waved to them as they pulled out of the drive.

Meanwhile, Laurie's parents, Marvin Sr. and Margaret Childers, were waiting at home for their daughter to arrive. They got a call from their son, who told them Laurie had left several minutes before and that he had just seen an ambulance and a fire truck race by his home, lights flashing, in the direction Laurie and gone.

He expressed concern but they assured each other that it couldn't have been Laurie; she only had to drive 10 miles. Fifteen minutes later they decided to go and check, just to be sure.

"We jumped in the car and started that way," Margaret said. "When we got to the state line, we could see the lights and the cars -- one of them was Laurie's. When we got there, the traffic was blocked but we just kept going.

"We could see the fire and her car was ablaze. My husband said he had to see and he ran across the road. When he came back he said Laurie was gone and they had burned up."

Laurie was killed instantly.

The driver of the other car also was killed instantaneously. An autopsy revealed that the driver was legally drunk. Police told Margaret Childers that the woman was driving at a high rate of speed and had pulled into the wrong lane of traffic.

The baby, Mary, initially survived, though she was badly burned. Her father and grandparents painfully watched for the two days Mary lived until severe brain damage caused by smoke inhalation finally stole her life, too.

The deaths, all three of them, are sorrowful, no doubt. But almost as tragic is what happens to those who are left behind.

"It was a nightmare. It's the most horrible experience I've had my whole life," Margaret said. "They paid the ultimate price. It didn't have to be that way.

"If they had been there a minute earlier or later, it never would have happened."

Margaret says life has been hard for her in the six months since they died but she is surviving.

"You have good days and horrible days and days you just get through," Margaret said, adding that there's not a day that she doesn't think about her daughter and granddaughter. "Some days I open my eyes and think I can't go on. But I don't have a choice. Death is final. You don't get to say goodbye. I didn't even get to see her. I'll never see them again."

Margaret tries not to blame the woman who was driving the other car: "I'm sure that lady just made a terrible mistake. I'm sorry for her and I'm sorry for her family."

Margaret said it was alcohol and its effects that stole two people she loved very dearly. What she finds amazing is that people continue to drive drunk.

Over 20,000 people were killed as the result of drunk driving last year in the U.S. Locally, there have been over 200 arrests this year in our fair city alone. Jackson reports 80 arrests of drunk drivers so far this year. Police say they have many repeat offenders, testament that some people never learn.

Margaret said penalties should be stiffer and I agree. When asked how long drunk drivers should go to jail. Margaret said: "I guess forever. That's how long my daughter will be gone." Margaret regretted her words immediately. "Not really, but they should get more than a slap on the wrist, don't you think?"

Indeed.

"This should never happen to another child. The next time it could be yours. My daughter was probably more against alcohol and drinking than anyone you would ever know. To think that it killed her and her baby is more than I could bear. And there was nothing we could do."

But Margaret is doing something about it now. She is starting a chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in Cooter. She hopes that telling her story will help make a difference.

Let's hope it does.

~Scott Moyers is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.