One of the stories in last Saturday's STAR was about a fire which destroyed the Barnett Street Police Station in Montego Bay, St James.

Though the destruction of the police station, which is listed as a national heritage site, is sad, the more touching story is the one of an officer who lost $575,000 in the fire. The officer, the story said, had taken a loan from a bank in order to purchase a car and was to hand over the money the next day. After the fire, however, all that was left was a bag with crisp, burnt $1,000 bills.

The story described the sadness with which the officer spoke.

It is yet to be decided if the lending agency will require this lawman to repay money that he never even got a chance to use or whether the loan will be written off because of the unforeseen event.

Such a story goes to show that we can do only do so much planning in life. The story shows that we really have little control over the things that will happen to us and that there is a greater power that orders our daily lives.

We can only hope that things will work out favourably for this officer and that the police station will be rebuilt.