I wasn't sure of the intention of this thread.
- It seems some have centred attention on the specific article, its tone and presentation.
- Or on how to relate to others after some devastating occurrence.
- Others on the philosophical or practical issues raised by the question "Does or does not everything happen for a reason?".
I think the second is key to making sense of the article itself.
The third, it is an interesting question, though perhaps too sweeping to include "everything". It would take a great deal of wisdom and compassion as well as perhaps knowledge of events and consequences well beyond our normal capabilities to make the claim in
all circumstances. Even then, I'm not sure it would stick.
In my own life I'm reasonably able, with hindsight, to pick out patterns which suggest, yes some things do indeed happen for a reason. As I get older I'm better able, some of the time, to identify them as they are actually happening.
However, I'd be less forthright in raising the topic with other people in the context of something which has taken place in their own life. I'd be unlikely to even consider it at first, it might not be appropriate at all. I can think of some arbitrary, made-up scenarios where it might be apt, but real life seldom conforms to our pre-scripted imagination, interactions with others take on a life of their own.