10.21.05

Grace goes round

Posted in Uncategorized on October 21st, 2005 at 5:05 pm by DJG

by: Donna Gossett Last December one of our local plants lost their contract with Mercedes. At the worst possible time of year they were forced to have a lay-off. One man was particularly hard hit. He was in his mid forties, the father of five children and his wife took this most inopportune time to leave him. Here he was a couple of weeks before Christmas, no job, no Christmas presents for his children and no money to buy groceries. One of his young co-workers took it on himself to go and buy Christmas presents for all of his children. In addition he had his grandmother go with him and bought groceries and had her to prepare some food for the family. This young man was only 25 at the time, but he was able to show grace to a man who was truly down on his luck. In September of this year this same young man lost his life. In a series of events I will never understand two young men entered his house and shot him, took his belongings and money to buy the same drugs they were strung out on at the time. All of the goodness, all of the generosity of this young man was snuffed out at point blank range. He never had a chance. The man he had so freely helped last year was broken hearted. He helped the police to identify his belongings that were missing. He was key in giving them the names that would lead to the arrest of the guilty parties. He aided the parents and grandparents in planning the funeral and getting in touch with the proper people. Then in another bizarre twist to the story, all of the young man’s assets are frozen until after the trials. His grandmother did not even have the money to pay for his headstone. Who do you think spearheaded the charge to collect the money? For one who had so freely helped others $1,500 was raised in a matter of hours. I don’t understand why his life was shortened in such a violent manner. But the above is just one of the many stories that have been told about a young man who truly knew how to return grace to those he met. I miss him and his sweet smile, but his goodness lives on.