Welcome To My Life

"Part Three"





     From 1974 to 1980 life was just the same old 
thing with nothing exciting or bad happening. Until
one day my husband came home and said we were going
to move to a house. His friend had asked him if we
would move in because he couldn't keep anyone in it.
Why you ask? It had a tenant that was of the dead
persuasion.lol! In other words a ghost. Needless to
say I had my doubts but what the heck it wouldn't be
the first one I met. And probably not the last.

The kids were happy to have a big yard to play
in and I was happy to be able to plant flowers. Plus
we could now have a dog so we got a beautiful German
Shepard named Pele' from Leanev Berguinsky who was
special Advisor to President Carter.

So, life went on as usual until Oct. 29th. 1981
when my world turned up side down. This part is very
hard for me to talk about mainly because of the pain
and loss of memory.

The day started out as usual by getting
the kids off to school. Let me back track a little.
The day before I had a premonition of a car accident and
death. Chris had to walk to school and cross the
street so I thought he was the one in danger. That
morning I walked him to school and as
we were getting ready to cross the street
a car came out of the side street
and was hit by a van.
No one was hurt bad thank goodness
but I thought that was what the premonition
was about and I had saved my son. Later
that day I was waiting for the kids to
come home from school when the phone rang.
It wasa friend of Richies wanting him to
come over to his house.
I told him he wasn't home yet
and I would tell him when he got
home. I never liked this kid because there was
something wrong with him. Have you ever met someone
who had...how should I say this...a look of evil in
their eyes? Well his did, they were so cold and full
of hate. Even our dog would not go near him and he
liked everyone. Allegedly his mother committed
suicide some years before by shooting herself in the
chest with a rifle. I don't think so
because even the Commonwealths Attorney said
there were no powder burns on her
or her clothing and there would be if
she shot herself. Plus the kid sat in my kitchen a
few weeks before and said he could commit murder and
get away with it.

Any ways he kept calling and when Richie got
home I told him that he had been calling so Richie
called him. I reminded Richie that he was going some
place with his father and he shouldn't go but Richie
sad he would be right back. A half hour
or so I got a call from the kids father
saying my son had shot himself.
I asked him if he called the paramedics and
he said yes, but it was a lie. Then I called my
husband at work and told him to get over there right
away and he did.It took him about 15 minutes to get
there and by that time the cops and rescue were
there. They wouldn't let him see Richie but he told
them he would turn the dog on them if they didn't.
Pele' was a trained attack dog by then and a lot of
the cops worked for my husband as security guards in
his buildings so they knew this. Plus I'm sure they
felt sorry for him so they let him in. I can't
imagine what it was like finding his son lying on
the kitchen floor on a pool of blood dead.
If it had been me I would have gone out of my mind.
Anyways he is the one who noticed that it wasn't suicide.
Richie was left handed and they had put
the gun in his right hand.
There were other things he noticed but I can't
remember what they were.
I don't remember this from that time,
I have heard it many times afterwards.

Most of everything after that is a fuzzy blur.
I remember bits and pieces like the detectives being there
asking questions about something and after that
I completely shut down.
I do remember seeing Richie in his coffin
and saying that it wasn't him
and Chris writing a note to put with Richie saying
" I love you" and his teddybear so he wouldn't be lonesome.
I know a lot of people came to the funeral.
All his teachers from the first grade up where there
at one time or another and all his friends.
I must have seen them but I don't remember.

A few months later there was a trial in juvenile court
because the boy who killed Richie was fourteen years old.
All they found him guilty of was involuntary
manslaughter. He never spent one day in jail.
His father did put him a mental institution for
a year but that was so they couldn't lock him up.
One little foot note,
as the kid walked out of court he looked at us
grinned and stuck his tongue out at us.
Shortly after that he disappeared,
we dont know what happened to him
and I don't care. My only hope is that God
will give him what he deserves.

Our lives slowly took on a more normal tone.
I finally stoped having periods of missing time.
My husband got a new job and Chris, well he was never the same.
His health got worse and he started having behavior problems.
It took a long time for him to get better.
He is not the person he would have been if this had never happened.
But then neither am I.