Newtown flag pole, December 14 2012.
UPDATE: 12.16.12 SNL honors the victims of the Sandy Hook tragedy.
UPDATE: If you want news on Sandy Hook, read from reporters whose job it is to cover Newtown and ONLY Newtown: The Newtown Bee.
I woke up today hoping that yesterday was a bad nightmare.
I lived in a small lake house off of Riverside Road very near the elementary school in Sandy Hook for about five years. I simply can't say enough good things about that proud section of Newtown as my fondest memories as a young adult are in that area.
From hanging out at Cave comics, catching a cheap flick at the Edmond Town Hall, and enjoying pizza at the Villa, to grabbing a copy of The Newtown Bee, rejoicing when the laundromat opened on Church Hill (renters from that section of Newtown understand), and enjoying the fact that Sandy Hook seemed to be close to about everywhere I needed to travel (Bridgeport, New Haven, Danbury, Waterbury, etc), Newtown has something for everyone and is Americana at it's finest.
When my landlord decided to sell his property on Lake Zoar, I had an opportunity to purchase the placed I called home for years but my girlfriend at the time (and future wife) didn't want to leave Danbury and convince me to move in with her. If the situation at the time went in my favor, my now six year old daughter would had been a first grade student at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
As I'm still grieving the loss of my wife to liver cancer earlier this year, and as a father to two amazing kids, I can't stop thinking about what my friends in Sandy Hook are going through right now. As a tweeted on the events as they unfolded yesterday, I thought about how things could have been different for me yesterday if my family lived in Sandy Hook. By late afternoon, I lost the energy to continue reporting on what was happening in my neck of the woods...the magnitude of what happened in Sandy Hook was simply too horrific to describe.
I broke down in tears while I hugged my daughter when she got off the bus yesterday (she looked at me like I was nuts). While I enjoyed my traditional pizza night with my little girl as we watched episodes of iCarly and the Good Luck Charlie Christmas special, I couldn't stop thinking about those parents in my favorite little town in Connecticut who are grieving the loss of their loved one.
Oh how I wish this was all a bad nightmare... |
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