Posted on 03/25/2019 11:20:03 AM PDT by ModernDayCato
Evil never stops destroying.
Jeremy Richman was a good guy. We chatted once a week at one of my local hangouts where he would appear with his beautiful daughter usually dressed as a princess and his eighteen month old son.
We talked about the usual stuff people casually acquainted speak of — the weather, town politics and kids.
He was a warm and friendly person. We spoke several times before someone told me he had lost a daughter in the shooting.
Jeremy and his family started a foundation named after their daughter Arielle, and the foundation offices were in the Edmund Town Hall, a historic building in Main Street that once housed town offices.
I’ve been sitting here for two hours, nursing my coffee and feeling the familiar emptiness and pain that the shooting brought all of us.
People shuffle in and express their surprise and their sadness. There are tears and comforting embraces.
I saw Jeremy and his kids just yesterday, and he was his usual amiable and friendly self. As one of the town employees said a little while ago, “no one but him knew about the invisible noose around his neck.”
Jeremy hung himself on the stage at Edmund Town Hall I’m told, a painful way to end a tortured life.
It leaves everyone wondering what we could have done to help, and as I listen to person after person add their pieces to the puzzle, clues begin to emerge.
The shooting was a profoundly evil act, and five years later that evil is still destroying.
Last year was a very difficult year for me. Probably the toughest of my life. There were medical problems, financial issues, and I lost the love of my life.
I thought about suicide a few times, but something always kept it to just a thought.
I still live with some of the emotional and physical agony, but I can’t imagine five years of living with the horror and agony of losing your child to an evil murderer.
While mourning Jeremy I felt oddly fortunate that my personal agony was less than his.
At the end of the day we’re all alone in these fragile bodies, and all we really have is the other souls who are also alone to lessen our agony.
I’ll miss our conversations and sneaking sweets to the little princess.
God Bless and keep you Jeremy, and watch over your family in your absence.
I’m so sorry.
RIP Jeremy.
Well, little girl has her daddy back now...Both rest happily forever...
And distribute grace liberally.
I wonder if Jeremy had a personal relationship with the Lord. If he was saved.
I don’t know how anyone could go through a tragedy like this without having a strong faith . Unfortunately, some people with no faith have no reason to live.
Amen.
Faith or not, I’m not sure how well I would have done losing a child that young and in that manner.
My mistake. His daughter’s name was Avielle, which I fat-fingered.
With God, all things are possible.
Matthew 19:26
And recognize that nothing you can do will stop it. If the thought of leaving their kids won’t stop them, I can’t imagine that anything else will work.
One of my friends killed himself after Thanksgiving. He had every reason to live but left his wife and kids. Grief and anger are hard to work out together.
A very sad but also very beautiful post. Thank you for writing it.
I wish Jeremy had thought a bit more about the beautiful princess and eighteen month old son who are still here - it might have changed the outcome - suicide is usually devastating to the survivors, especially young ones who eventually end up wondering why they weren’t precious enough to make their parent want to stick around.....
My daughter was in kindergarten when this happened.
The exact age as the kids who were murdered.
She’s 13 now, a beautiful, brilliant, amazing young lady who makes me proud every day.
If this had happened to her, I may have chosen this way out. I don’t know. But, living in a world that no longer had my little girl in it..... unbearable.
I gave a dude a jump today
OK, fire away...
I agree with that. Nothing good to say about suicide.
I have absolute sympathy for him and his situation. I could not and would not want to Imagine losing a young child. BUT I also could not
Imagine doing to the remaining children what suicide will do. People talk about the evil 5 years in but this act is just perpetuating that evil to an innocent generation ( his two younger children). I am with the poster who said it’s time to stop being so accepting of the false choice of suicide.
What he went thru is unimaginable. But he left behind a wife and two younger children to have to deal with another tragedy
What he did was wrong. He and his wife are educated. The wife a scientist. He was neuropharmacologist. Get help. Move away from that town.
Speaking for myself, I neither condone the act nor judge him for it. I think it’s tragic, and I certainly see your point.
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