Yesterday was a day for celebration for my family. My son graduated from high school (2 down and 2 to go…).
It was a happy day for me, but it started out not very happy for him and my older son (who graduated 2 years ago).
The night before, there was a very upsetting tragedy in their town. My sons are friends with two brothers, one also graduating on the same day. The older brother (my older sons friend) drove up from Texas to watch the ceremony.
Unfortunately the night before he apparently made some poor choices and was subsequently shot and killed by a police officer in a small town nearby.
I won’t speculate on what happened as the facts are sketchy and have not been officially released. I can say that this is the first time my sons have had to deal with a death of a friend and someone so young, so suddenly and so senselessly. It will be interesting to see the “official” report of the incident.
You can read more on that by clicking here. There are many reports and all speculation at the moment.
My heart goes out to the kid and his family.
My heart also goes out to the cop. I would have a tough time believing he feels anything but extremely bad about the whole ordeal.
As a parent, we live in fear of something like this – news in the dead of night about one of our children. I don’t wish that on anyone. But I did use this incident to talk to my boys about consequences of the choices they make. Hopefully they remember the next time they get behind the wheel of a car, or get pulled over by the police, or drink, or any of the “dumb” things young people do. (Not judging here – I did more than my fair share of dumb things when I was their age…).
I also hugged them tight.
They are grieving and they now have to go to a funeral to bury a friend.
I hope for their sake they will walk away from this ordeal smarter than before, more aware than before.
To my son Vincent… Happy Graduation Day!
This was before the graduation, soon after he got the news.
This was taken after the graduation ceremony. Feeling a bit better.
The boy who was killed was my older sons friend. You can see on his face how upset he is. This is after the ceremony as well.
