As always I appreciate your comments, and yes I think I will make this whole idea--things I didn't know--into an ongoing series. But today my thoughts are with the people of Newtown, Connecticut.
It seems like these things happen in spates. Some of you may recall that the day before Columbine, the Church Office Building here in Salt Lake was the site of a shooting. As it turned out, my mother was there on the same floor as the shooter. As soon as she heard the first shot go off, she hit the floor face down, covered the back of her head with her hands, and counted off the rounds. She stayed there until she and other patrons were led out of the building and taken to the Howard Johnson's nearby for safe-keeping.
This was in the days before everyone had cell phones, so we had no idea if TRQ was okay. I knew that she'd been at the library. I was supposed to pick her up later. But of course the events of the day changed everything.
I called Ken, who was working downtown and asked him to go find TRQ while I waited by the telephone at home. He and a partner from work left the office and headed over to the Church Office Building to see what he could find out. Meanwhile I contacted my dad, who grabbed an assistant at the office and got up here as fast as he could.
We finally located TRQ a few anxious hours later. She was shaken, of course, but safe. As for me, I'll never forget those long moments of listening to breaking news on the radio and not knowing.
1 comment:
Long anxious moments. The one thing that sucks about this wonderful life is that we all have these moments sometime. Situations like these, and Columbine, and Newtown, etc. really shake our sense of humanity. Along with the questions of how this could happen, we are faced with other questions. How are we supposed to feel? Sad? Bad? Scared? Yes, yes and yes. But what do we do from there? Anything else? When is it ok to laugh again? Or be happy? Luckily, some make it out ok, and unfortunately, some don't.
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