Home
The other day I was driving home from St. Louis. I couldn't get home fast enough. If my eyes weren't slapping shut the night before, I would have made it home then. I was probably 70 miles from the house, flipping radio stations, trying to find music to pass the time, when Ricky Scaggs caught my attention. There's very few bluegrass artists that I dig, but Ricky, Allison Krauss, and Emmylou Harris are the exceptions. The song was called The Halfway Home Cafe. It was a song about a prisoner who finally did his time, a strayed man leaving his mistress, and the third verse about a runaway with her father. They all were finally going home. I can't remember exactly how the chorus went, but the gist of it was they're heading home, can't believe they're still loved after all the bad seeds they had sown. They're going home.
Recently, two students from a school where we tutor had ended their life. Both were 8th graders, 13 and 14 years old. Basically, a boy had broken up with one of the girls and started seeing the other. The one girl was so upset that she went to the other girl's house and stabbed her to death. One girl is dead and the other is in jail probably for the rest of her life. It's bothered me all week maybe cause it hit so close to home. But, how does that happen? How does a 14 year old girl resort to that? Come to find out after a routine physical in jail, she's pregnant. Wasn't there someone, somewhere she could have talked to?
After hearing the song, I thought of the time when life had knocked me flat on my back. I was heartbroken and full of hurt and despair. I guess in that frame of mind, maybe I too could have done the unimaginable. Who knows? But the difference is I had someone to call, a family in my corner, a home to go home to. Believe me, it wasn't an easy call, but in any case it was and still is always there for me, no matter what. No strings attached. After making that call, I was accepted back home with open arms, given time to heal, and a chance to get back on my feet. Life has moved on for me with a wonderful husband and two beautiful children, but who knows where I would be without that chance to go home.
Recently, two students from a school where we tutor had ended their life. Both were 8th graders, 13 and 14 years old. Basically, a boy had broken up with one of the girls and started seeing the other. The one girl was so upset that she went to the other girl's house and stabbed her to death. One girl is dead and the other is in jail probably for the rest of her life. It's bothered me all week maybe cause it hit so close to home. But, how does that happen? How does a 14 year old girl resort to that? Come to find out after a routine physical in jail, she's pregnant. Wasn't there someone, somewhere she could have talked to?
After hearing the song, I thought of the time when life had knocked me flat on my back. I was heartbroken and full of hurt and despair. I guess in that frame of mind, maybe I too could have done the unimaginable. Who knows? But the difference is I had someone to call, a family in my corner, a home to go home to. Believe me, it wasn't an easy call, but in any case it was and still is always there for me, no matter what. No strings attached. After making that call, I was accepted back home with open arms, given time to heal, and a chance to get back on my feet. Life has moved on for me with a wonderful husband and two beautiful children, but who knows where I would be without that chance to go home.
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