Our region is normally bustling with happiness as July 4 arrives, as businesses start getting busier, our summer colonies fill up with daily arrivals of family members and friends, and the weather is usually good enough for outdoor barbecues, lawn games, ocean swimming and more.

But as dark clouds floated by and brought a slight drizzle during our nation's Independence Day, some dark and sad news evolved in the late afternoon as state and local police began putting together the pieces and the reasons behind three deaths in two Boothbay Harbor homes.

Whatever the reason for these acts, it is hard to accept. Not that it happened on a holiday that is supposed to be happy, but because it happened at all. Senseless deaths are not a regular occurrence here in beautiful Midcoast Maine, and thankfully so.

We experienced a double homicide in Boothbay Harbor nearly 11 years ago and it tore at the hearts of the families and friends of Chevelle “Chellie” Callaway and Sarah Murray, as well as the community as a whole. After some healing and the sentencing of the killer, we saw the community rise up to take on the domestic violence problem. It was a way of healing and honoring the two victims.

This weekend's incident appears to be a family dispute that ended with extreme violence: A different type of domestic violence involving a desperate father and an innocent wife and son.

Now we must heal again. If prayers help, please say them. If you're dealing with problems within your own family, start resolving them today. Don't wait.

Our thoughts are also with law enforcement and rescue personnel who have to face such tragedies up close. These situations can't be easy to accept or to forget.

We will get through this and hopefully the people who knew the Jorgensen family well can seek comfort from each other by paying tribute to them in a special way.