A Year After ‘The Event’

Pirating a term coined to describe a mass shooting/killing spree in Tucson, AZ wasn’t the plan. It just worked out that way. It’s 10:00a.m. AZ time which makes it nearly precisely one year after The Event. All around town groups and individuals are responding, acting, reacting in their own way. We’ve been part of multiple events already beginning with chilly pre-dawn volunteering at a BEYOND event January 7th. Events were held all over town; it was nearly impossible to not find a couple in which to volunteer or participate. 

A year ago I was cleaning the house–yup; remember it distinctly. I was cleaning when local news broke in on my radio show~~ it was confusing, mixed messages, abrupt, disjointed. Yet no mistake that something bad had happened locally. Shortly after that Ames called to let me know she was on her way to a work incident, that she’d take Walter with and she’d likely be awhile and would call me later with details. Connecting the dots I silenced the radio and turned on the TV–every local channel plus a couple other national news channels were scrambling to push video through and report some level of detail.

Cleaning stopped, heart racing, TV flipping through channels…….radio back on to get better detail. A couple more calls and messages from Ames. Finally information began truing up between stations which meant accuracy could be rising to a level of believability. A couple hours had passed and I was asked to head to one of Ames’ local sites to pick up Walter, our service dog. He’d been at his weekly service job when the call came in and now he’d been at the operation center for a few hours. It was time to get him fed, walked and napped. 

I needed to catch a ride down to the site as my car was still in IA; one of the neighbors was glad to oblige and we headed down with an unusual bit of tension in the air. Thanks given as I hopped out and into our car; as I pulled up to the building to grab Walter only a few words were shared: ‘I know, I heard–how long will you be’. I don’t know, we really don’t know all we need to, it’ll be a long night. Walter would end up back at the office several more times for many, many hours. In fact the folks working gave him a little honor after things were tied up. I think it included treats but it also included something for Ames: 

I headed home and packed several things to take back~~ food, drinks, clothing, etc…. It was a long night. The next several days and nights were equally as long; perhaps a 100 hour week that first week.  After a couple days I had to catch a flight back to the midwest. Probably the most difficult one up to that point. Some shifts in my direction and timetable were made during and after that flight.

Indirectly (to be clear~~very indirectly on a relative scale) I was, and remain impacted by that day one year ago. Just one of many who have even a tiny thread of connection; but some things personally changed after that day. Only one of the reasons for taking part in some of this weekends events.

It’s 10:11a.m. local–precisely one year after.  They just broke in on all media and are ringing bells/chimes. Ames is off with Walter at a mandatory service-dog re-certification test. It’ll be stressful for both~~Walt because he’s not the most engaged with command-type requirements. He gets by A few moments of silent remembrance is so insignificant; yet it’s the least I can offer.