I grew up in small town Virginia, in a rural county where dairy farming and apple and peach orchards dominated the local economy along with woodworking and textile industries.
Two of my cousins went to Virginia Tech to major in agriculture, or the "cow college" as some of us teased them about it. Ag school wasn't easy. One of my other cousins went to UVa for undergrad and I went there for one of my grad degrees. For some of us, college was not a given. Not because of smarts, but because of money. We worked and went anyway. My first two years of college, one of my cousins and I went to Bluefield College and we'd pass Virginia Tech on our drive up US 460 to Bluefield. My cousin Richard wasn't in school there yet, but a fair number of our high school classmates who went on to college attended Tech.
Later on, another cousin moved to Christiansburg, down the road from Tech, and met his wife, who worked at Tech. Yesterday's news hit our family hard. We all have ties to Tech, and my immediate thoughts were for my cousin's wife, who stills works at Tech. I contacted another cousin, who called his sister-in-law's father, and verified that she and her husband were fine.
While I'm relieved and thankful beyond belief at the news, I couldn't help but watch the news and wonder. Some of the injured were taken to Roanoke Memorial Hospital, one of the few trauma centers in that area of Virginia. One of my high school classmates is a trauma surgeon at Roanoke Memorial and was my father's surgeon. I asked for blessings on Al as he performed surgery on these young people. I asked for prayers for the parents, families and friends of these young people -- knowing that some of those young folks might be children of high school classmates.
While part of me wants to know why Why WHY? I also know that people snap. People make decisions that aren't rational, that make no sense, and that have permanent consequences and leave indelible tracks on other's lives and on history. I can ask for peace, for forgiveness and healing. And pray no one tries to "top this one."
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