In this little town where I live the population is probably around 12 thousand or so. It's a tight knit little place with most everybody having grown up here or in the area. My own roots are here although I didn't actually grow up here, both my parents did.
It's a town where some people still don't lock their doors at night or leave their keys in their cars. There is of course crime and even murders from time to time but this week a murder took place that has saddened the whole town. Usually the murders that occur are domestic disputes but this one was totally unpredictable and so very violent that it has shook our little town up and filled us with sadness.
Imagine this. A small town hardware store. The manager had been working there for over twenty five years. This is a farming town and even though Home Depot came in a few years back, there is still loyalty to the local store because this guy who runs the place is a fraternity brother, a childhood friend, your teacher's husband, your child's best friend's father. He is a member of your church, he is someone everyone knows and his big smile that greets you when you enter the store just makes you feel good. He is fifty three years old, has a pretty wife and three children who adore him. HE would, and probably has, given you the shirt off his back if you needed it.
Now, imagine this. In a town about 100 miles away, a prisoner who has been sentenced to fifteen years for armed robbery and drugs is released after nine years. The prison gives him bus fare to go to his hometown and he's to do that and go straight to his parole officer. The bus makes a stop in our little town which is about an hour from his final destination. He gets off here. He doesn't get back on the bus, instead he goes into several busiesses in town, acting suspicious, even to the point one store owner picks up the phone to call the police but when he leaves, the store owner hangs up and doesn't pursue it. A few doors down the prisoner enters the back door of a hardware store. When the manager sees him he asks what he needs and he tells him that he is robbing him, there is a struggle and just like that, the manager is stabbed in the neck with a knife and the prisoner runs out.
Even though paramedics are called and he is rushed to the hospital, he dies. The prisoner is caught late that same night in that same neighborhood and back off to jail he goes.
In just that short ammount of time, life is suddenly changed for a family and a town. No matter how hard you try to make sense of it, there is nothing about it that makes sence. And sometimes in life you just have to accept that.
