Welcome to Our Family Website

It was the summer of 1959 and I was playing in the back yard with various siblings and friends on a warm, sunny day. The phone rang and seconds later I heard my mother shriek in a way I had never heard before and would never hear again. We all knew something was very, very wrong. My parents went to their room; some time later my father came to the back yard to tell us there had been an awful accident. Cousin Greg had been shot and killed. Over the next few days my parents came and went to the wake and the funeral with a sadness that was palpable. 

One summer Greg was dropped off at our house and we spent the afternoon together. We headed to the railroad tracks to place pennies on the tracks for the trains to flatten them. I enjoyed this but couldn’t help thinking that was once less piece of bubble gum available to us. We also enjoyed pelting the freight trains with rocks: good time and no loss of revenue. My memory of Greg was of a funny, confident,  and friendly boy who despite being a couple years older treated me well. Like all his brothers he was handsome, but had curly blond hair in contrast to their darker looks.

As I write this I am fully aware that our family’s experience that summer was incidental compared to the grief and loss experienced by the Saunders family. But I wanted to take a moment to remember my cousin Greg and the fun we had that day so many years ago.