The Letter - Chapter 36

I didn’t know if finally making contact with George Leskovic would lead to any sort of future relationship with him.  But it did let me know that I liked the thought of being with someone.  Shortly before he died, my Jim made me promise to be open to the possibility of finding love with another.   I thought about the words he said to me when he was in hospice.

“I’ll be leaving you shortly, my dear Ellie,” he said.   God willing, you’ll have many years on this earth before we’ll meet again in whatever comes next. You love life and you thrive on relationships, Ellie.  That’s why you’re so loved by everyone that knows you.  That’s what made me fall so deeply in love with you.   So don’t make my memory something sacred.  I’m just a man and there are other good men.  One of them may be your next soul mate, so when he comes along, embrace him with my eternal blessing.”

He died the next morning.  An aggressive form of cancer gave us a little more than a month to prepare for his death.  I mourned his loss and knew it would be unlikely that I’d ever find someone as good as him.  But I remembered his words, and always tried to be open to the possibility.

Was George Leskovic that possibility?  Perhaps it was just a coincidence that against considerable odds and thousands of miles between us we had somehow connected – with a little help from our friends, as that old song goes.  But was he a good man – the soul mate that Jim had talked about?  His messages in response to my Facebook friend request made me feel like a giddy teen.  But perhaps I was reading too much into his friendly banter.  I decided to see if he had posted anything since we messaged each other.  As a matter of fact, he had posted something earlier this morning.

“I appreciate those friends that regularly visit my blog.  I posted an article last night expressing my views on an important issue, which frankly has become far too politicized.  Please read ‘There Was No Outrage’ at GeoLeskovic@blogpost.com.”

I clicked on the link to take me to the article.

There was no outrage.  No candlelight vigils were reported.  There was no Presidential visit to comfort the community.  No emails from gun control advocates using the tragedy as a means to raise money for their cause.  After all, the body count was only one dead, two wounded.  It was just one more school shooting. 

According to police and witnesses, a student at the school – wearing khakis, part of the school uniform – opened fire shortly after 7 a.m., leaving the 8^th grade math teacher dead and two students wounded.  The shooter, apparently then took his own life, police said. 

There was no mention of the type of gun used or how the student got the gun.  There was no discussion of motive or whether there were mental health issues or whether he the object of bullying, or just having a bad day. 

According to Gun Violence Archive, a database that tracks gun violence, there have been over 1,500 mass shootings in the United States since the Newtown tragedy, and still more since the more recent mass shooting in Parkland, Florida.  This murder in a small town school in Arkansas wouldn’t have even met their definition of mass shooting – at least 4 dead not including the shooter.

So does anyone really cares about one more school shooting?  Or could this tragedy just be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back? 

Not a chance – unless those shocked by the gun violence taking place in this country, those that believe something should be done, band together and exert the power possessed by free citizens in a democracy to elect representatives committed to resisting the gun lobby and taking reasonable steps to build a safer society.

I finished the article and went back to George’s Facebook post.  I hit the ‘like’ button and left a comment.

Good article, George.  I agree that action needs to be taken to prevent these sorts of tragedies from becoming almost daily occurrences.

I left the computer to fix myself some lunch.  When I returned, I saw that George had ‘liked’ my comment and replied.

Thank you, Ellie.  I submitted it to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and got an email this morning telling me they plan to publish it in Sunday’s Forum.  Didn’t expect to hear from them so quickly after submitting it yesterday.

I hit the like button and sent the following response.

Congratulations, George.  I’ll look for the electronic version on Sunday.

I got up and went into the kitchen.  Sun was streaming in.  It looked like it was going to be a glorious day.  I felt like taking a walk.  I decided to call Beverly to see if she was home and if she’d like a visitor.