Sometimes it's hurts to remember...

I had received the call fairly early in the morning. Something was wrong with my wife's sister Laurie. All attempts to reach her had failed. We needed to go to her apartment in Champlin and make sure everything was okay. Something told us it was not. I got another call from my mother-in-law Carol, who was staying at our house for two weeks. She had a call from a woman. The woman had been a former girlfriend of Laurie's husband Kurt. She had said that Kurt called her and said he had hurt Laurie. Worse yet, he said he had shot and killed her. Carol called me while I was on my mail route in North Minneapolis. This was not the sort of call one received everyday. The news she shared was something all of us would have heard on some sort of detective show. We needed to go to Champlin. I quickly called my wife Lynell and told her I was on my way. The drive to the apartment took forever. I had my supervisor Mark on the phone and told him that I was sure this was some sort of misunderstanding. I rounded the corner to Laurie's street and assured my boss that nothing could be wrong. There was no sign of fire engines, police cars or anything of the like. This doesn't happen in our lives. This is something out of some newspaper article. No matter how much Laurie and Kurt had fought in the past, he would never be so stupid as to do something that would harm her. As I rounded the corner, things changed oh so quickly. The front yard of the apartment was full of every sort of police car you could imagine. Something had happened. I pulled into the parking spot next to the sliding doors. I was met by a young cop who did not want to give me any information. I finally reassured him it would be between the two of us. I asked" Man to man, is she okay?" "No" he said. "Laurie is dead. She was shot".
I remember that day. It seems so long ago, but yet, in a weird way, it seems like it never happened. I do not handle death very well, and I hope the feeling of losing friends and family close to me will someday go away..... I hope so.

Joe