Reading Time On A Friday Afternoon

This is the Friday before the last week of school and while my classes have been finishing their super cool end of the year projects, I've been milling around the room and straightening things up a bit. In doing so, I came across a Time magazine from November of 1999. I became interested in this particular magazine because of the cover. On the cover, in big bright lettering I read, "Low-Carb Diets...Meat-loving, bread-banning regimes are the rage. Do they work? Are they healthy? Here's the skinny."

Well, this had me all twitterpated, because finally, I was going to find out if these low-carb diets actually worked! So, as I perused my way through the articles in search of the answer to my long awaited question, I came across a section titled Milestones. When I think of milestones, it usually brings to my mind important, fulfilling moments in one's life. Such as, getting your driving license, graduating from high school, or getting married. But one of these articles, just didn't fit the description.

"Died, Carla Hochhalter, 48, mother of Anne Marie, 17, a student paralyzed in the April shootings at Columbine High. Hochhalter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound; in Englewood, Colo. At a pawnshop, Hochhalter asked to see a .38-cal. revolver, then surreptitiously loaded the gun with bullets she had brought with her before shooting herself in the right temple. Just days before, her daughter had finally regained some movement in her legs."

I resided in Denver during the Columbine shootings. I could never make myself go by the school that transformed into a momento filled display of people pouring their grief out onto the sidewalk like water from an overfilled tub. Most of us were able to push those memories out of our minds, gone...vanished, but what if...what if, you woke each morning to a constant reminder of those wretched hours being relived time after time. Wishing that it were only a rancid nightmare, but waking to the reality of a child, paralyzed.

I don't know for what reason Carla ended her life, I can only imagine that it may have had something to do with the tragedy at Columbine. I used to think that parents that took their own lives were selfish, but in my wisened older more mature stage of my life, I choose this belief instead, "Don't judge until you've had the same exact experience." And since, we really and truly can not have the same experience as another person, then it's not for me to say

Hmmm...still trying to find that low carb diet article.