Post by Duchess of Lashes on Jun 14, 2007 18:33:05 GMT -5
I referenced my "friend" in the Dining in the Dark thread, and thought I would share him with you. He is one of the reasons I am sure Blind Justice touched me the way it did, especially the scene with Jim Dunbar and Pete. I wish there had been a Jim Dunbar there for him.
I grew up in a very small town in Ontario, where everyone knew everyone; there were no strangers; you may not have known every detail about a particular family or known anything more than their name or what they did for a living, but you never passed by anyone without a hello or a wave. That was how it was and that is why we all knew Kenny.
Kenny was one of those boys it was easy to have a school girl crush on, and many of us did. He was just a grade ahead of us, slight in build with shoulder length dark hair, dark eyes, a quick smile and a confident swagger. He wasn't drop dead gorgeous but he was beguiling and devilish enough in character that there was definitely something about him that made you take that second look and drew many to him. It seemed he always had a circle around him, a big circle.
On a crisp morning, mid-fall, I was in Grade Ten at the time, Kenny was wounded, the victim of an errant gunshot to the right temple while hunting with his Dad and some friends. I remember for a while there was concern that he might not pull through. And I remember being horrified for the first time in my life, knowing that someone my age might actually die. I hadn't been personally touched by death before.
But, Kenny survived, his loss of sight and a horrible scar hidden under his hairline, the permanent reminders of what happened that day. He was gone for a long time, rehabilitating, learning to live his life again, and finally, after almost a year and half away, he ventured back to school. We knew he was back because the circle was back and the swagger was back, at least for a short time. We admired him for his courage, for fighting so hard, and learning so quickly to adapt to his new world, and getting involved in life again. But I guess the struggle for him was extremely hard. It was a small town and resources were limited.
When Kenny was finally partnered up with his black Labrador Retriever his outlook seemed to change because his life changed again. He regained his independence, he and his dog became a fixture on the streets; he'd walk everywhere, miles a day. It was so good to see him experience the freedom of unlimited movement, able to be out and about and confident. And for a while, it looked like all was right with his world.
But time changes things. His circle of friends began to graduate from school, college loomed on the horizon, some were married, many of them left the small town world and never looked back. I think that’s when we began to notice that we didn’t see Kenny as much as we used to. Where once it was a daily sighting, those sightings became weekly and then we wouldn’t see him for weeks.
And then one morning, we knew we would never see him again. With the house empty, his Dad at work, he left his dog at home, walked the short distance across the back yard to the woods behind the family residence and took his own life. Ironically, it was a bullet that killed him.
Whether his life changed in the manner it did, he still would have been one of those boys you just remember - and we do, all these years later, but not in the way we always thought we would.
I grew up in a very small town in Ontario, where everyone knew everyone; there were no strangers; you may not have known every detail about a particular family or known anything more than their name or what they did for a living, but you never passed by anyone without a hello or a wave. That was how it was and that is why we all knew Kenny.
Kenny was one of those boys it was easy to have a school girl crush on, and many of us did. He was just a grade ahead of us, slight in build with shoulder length dark hair, dark eyes, a quick smile and a confident swagger. He wasn't drop dead gorgeous but he was beguiling and devilish enough in character that there was definitely something about him that made you take that second look and drew many to him. It seemed he always had a circle around him, a big circle.
On a crisp morning, mid-fall, I was in Grade Ten at the time, Kenny was wounded, the victim of an errant gunshot to the right temple while hunting with his Dad and some friends. I remember for a while there was concern that he might not pull through. And I remember being horrified for the first time in my life, knowing that someone my age might actually die. I hadn't been personally touched by death before.
But, Kenny survived, his loss of sight and a horrible scar hidden under his hairline, the permanent reminders of what happened that day. He was gone for a long time, rehabilitating, learning to live his life again, and finally, after almost a year and half away, he ventured back to school. We knew he was back because the circle was back and the swagger was back, at least for a short time. We admired him for his courage, for fighting so hard, and learning so quickly to adapt to his new world, and getting involved in life again. But I guess the struggle for him was extremely hard. It was a small town and resources were limited.
When Kenny was finally partnered up with his black Labrador Retriever his outlook seemed to change because his life changed again. He regained his independence, he and his dog became a fixture on the streets; he'd walk everywhere, miles a day. It was so good to see him experience the freedom of unlimited movement, able to be out and about and confident. And for a while, it looked like all was right with his world.
But time changes things. His circle of friends began to graduate from school, college loomed on the horizon, some were married, many of them left the small town world and never looked back. I think that’s when we began to notice that we didn’t see Kenny as much as we used to. Where once it was a daily sighting, those sightings became weekly and then we wouldn’t see him for weeks.
And then one morning, we knew we would never see him again. With the house empty, his Dad at work, he left his dog at home, walked the short distance across the back yard to the woods behind the family residence and took his own life. Ironically, it was a bullet that killed him.
Whether his life changed in the manner it did, he still would have been one of those boys you just remember - and we do, all these years later, but not in the way we always thought we would.
