Can we stand another perspective on Fate.  I wonder if Gary would have cried sooner if he’d been able to reach his parents.  This is what my imagination says Lois would think.

Disclaimers:  The usual.  The gang belongs to Sony, Tristar & CBS.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mom's Reflections
by Janet

I wish we’d been home when Gary called.  But Bernie and I were out shopping for stuff we needed for the house.  Before we went home that day we stopped for lunch.  And then we ran into some friends we hadn’t seen for a while and we sat talking.  By the time we got home it was all over and done with and done with and Gary was home in his loft safe and sound.

I’ll never forget that day but for a different reason than Gary.  When we got home there was a message from our son on the answering machine.  But it didn’t sound like Gary.  Not this flat, stuttering, almost emotionless voice.  Why on earth would Gary call just to tell us he misses us and loves us?  We know that.  He knows we know that.  I’m not sure what scared us most.  The message that sounded so, oh I don’t know final, or the tone of his voice.

When we finally got in touch with him a few days later, we all cried, Gary, his dad and I.  I can still hear Gary’s voice as he told us about the apartment fire and how he failed to save Jeremiah Mason.  There was sadness and pain in it.  And a hint of unforgiving.  As if it was his fault that he couldn’t hang onto Jeremiah’s arm and keep him from falling.  I know Gary.  I know how hard he tried.  How difficult if must have been for him to crawl across the ladder he stretched between the buildings.  Gary’s afraid of heights.  He always has been.  He’d climb trees when he was a little boy only to have to be rescued because he was scared.  I can imagine how dizzy he got as he crawled across.  I can see the smile he must have given to Jeremiah trying to encourage him.  I can hear his agonized scream as Jeremiah slipped from his grasp and fell to his death on top of a car parked in the street below.

Gary hasn’t told us and may never tell us what happened between the fire and the building collapse. Mostly he’s told us about getting the two teenagers out of there before it fell in on him.  How he lay unconscious for an undetermined length of time before he finally crawled out from under all the rubble, called out to and was pulled to safety by the Search & Rescue team.  He hasn’t told us everything that happened while he was trapped in that building when it collapsed.  Something happened that made him want to be rescued.  Maybe some day he will.

For now it’s enough to know that Gary is safe.  That he has Marissa and Erica right there in Chicago to look out for him.  To know that, even though it may take some time, he will eventually heal.  Not physically.  He was treated and released for the minor injuries including a leg or ankle injury. But emotionally and psychologically.  After our conversation with him he was beginning to sound more like himself again.  But I know Gary.  This will stay with him for a long time. All we can do is let him work it out for himself and call whenever he feels the need to talk to us or just cry if he feels the need.  And we’ll be here.  I only hope that if there is a next time it doesn’t take us three days to reach him.

Email the author: Janet.E.Brayden@nae02.usace.army.mil
 

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