Senior Daze

by Katie Bourg

About Katie: Having arrived in time for the Great (?) Depression, WWII, and all other 20th century problems, I am endowed with long and varied memories. Writing classes have long been my home away from home. Other people's stories are fascinating, and sharing is growth at its best. Hope you seniors will join me with your stories. Try it. You'll like it.

I am aware that I am probably sticking my neck out to be chopped off by many. Still, I've watched the news and read the papers and can't get this out of my system. So I might as well say it and get it over with.

I'm eighty-six years old. I've had some successes and a fair share of failures come my way. I've been lucky. My more stupid moments never resulted in permanent damage--that I'm aware of, anyway. My kids might tell you otherwise at times. And I have frequently wished I had done some things differently. I think, if we were honest, most of us could say the same thing.

On a Sunday afternoon, when all the family friends gathered at City Park, my father left without me. By the time he realized and raced back, friends had piled me into their car with their own kids, and were already planning to tease him unmercifully. He acknowledged he had it coming. My mother wasn't very happy with him, and saw to it that he suffered appropriately.

Fortunately it was not a big thing at the time. Life was simpler then. I never left a child behind, but I supposed I did some other dumb things.

Some momentary lapses are bigger than others. The papers have been full of a recent tragedy, and the trial that is pending, because someone got careless with a gun.

Admittedly that's a big one, that we will be hearing about for some time to come. Was it unforgivable? I would say so. But criminal? I'm having a little trouble with that one.

This was a split-second mistake that will never go away. It shouldn't have happened. It did. A good family was thrown into unbelievable horror. A little girl is dead. A little boy will grow up knowing he did it. Parents are devastated. Now the father faces criminal charges. Will this make him feel any more guilty than he already does? One moment of carelessness and he's lost a child he loved. The pain will never go away. The family will never be the same. Never is a long time. But there it is. So what's ahead?

The system has decided to bring criminal charges. The father, a good man, a public servant, may be convicted and sent to jail. That is only part of the outcome. Over time it may prove to be the easiest part.

What of the family? The income that has sustained them will dissolve. The mother will be forced to find some way to support the other children, taking her out of the home. For however long? The children will have lost a father who made one dumb mistake. The mother will have lost his support when needed the most.

And in the long years ahead with the father jailed, who will guide the little boy that must someday come to terms with what his action caused? His mother no longer able to stay home when he needs her. Knowing, as he is certain to know, that however unintentional, he caused the change in all their lives. That Daddy is locked up, Sister is dead, and Mama cannot always be there for him, because of something he did. And you can bet he will know. Some things just can't be kept a secret. How do you convict for a careless mistake without punishing everyone affected?

Personally, I hate guns. I wish they had never been invented. But I don't think much of a system that punishes a whole family for one foolish moment. That's not justice.