Valentine Day Scare

By now all of you have heard about the shooting at Northern Illinois University. I first heard about it when Cindy called me in a panic and told me about it and that Kyle was not answering his cell phone. Kyle, our oldest son, is a third year law student there. She asked me if I could get through to see if he was OK. I could not get through either but I saved his roommates number in my phone. Over the years I've saved a lot of the boy's friends cell phone numbers in my phone. I don't use them, but I have them for times like this. I called Aaron, one of Kyle's roommates. He was on his way home from Rockford and said he just heard about it on the radio. He told me that Kyle should have been out of the area by then and was probably at a buddies house. Kyle is out of class at 2:30 on Thrursday and the shooting was a little later. The cellphones were still not working in DeKalb area when Cindy got an e-mail from Kyle saying he was OK. After hearing that Kyle was Ok, I called Trevor to let him know what was going on. One of his football friends has a little brother playing football at Northern. After another wait while the guys checked on "Mooch" we finally heard back from Trev that he was Ok too.

Kyle, Aaron, Trevor, and Ken during happier times. Actually the boys were trying to recover after a victory party the night before.

You've got to feel for the people involved, the kids, their parents, friends, brothers and sisters. This kind of thing hurts a lot of people and it hurts them for a the rest of their lives. I hope all of them (including the shooters family) can some how find a way to let it go. I know it will take time, and there will probably be no answers to their questions. All we can do is cry a little, pray for them, and hope that some day they can recover.

Ken F