Victim Impact Statement
Our son has been overwhelmed with emotion, guilt, and confusion. So much so, that he is not here today, but is safe with his friends at school. Even though we hear howls of laughter coming from his room, we know that he is in pain. He is also in therapy and requires medication to make it though. He is an intelligent, sensitive, logical young man, who misses his sister every day. They were typical siblings, always arguing, always pestering one another, but deep down, they loved each other very much. Evelyn was Jonathan’s protector. Gillespie robbed Jonathan of all the things that go along with being a little brother.
********************
As for me, well I have never really been the happiest person on earth, and Evelyn among others took great joy in telling me how grumpy I was. Now I feel like there was must have been something more I could have done. When Evelyn was born, she was my little taquito, my Chiquita bonita. I always looked forward to the day I would walk her down the aisle and the father/daughter dance at her wedding. Holding her grandkids and wishing on her that they would be 10 times worse that she was. I dreamt of spoiling them with candy and sending them home on a sugar rush with toys that make noise. It is all gone now, in a split second. We like to say these days that “it is what it is”, the trouble I have with this phrase and this event is that it did not have to be that way.
