October 16, 2006 We're home from our trip now, having accomplished much in terms of family and writing research, visiting and having new experiences. Our trip was marred by four events that occurred back home while we were away. The first call came from where we lived four addresses ago. Cindy called me and asked me if I'd seen the news. There were five people knifed in her town. One was her daughter, Sabrina. Apparently, Sabrina had been out celebrating someone's birthday when her ex-boyfriend showed up and began stabbing her. A man came to the rescue and was also stabbed, as were three others. Sabrina ended up in the hospital needing surgery for multiple injuries. The man was also taken to the hospital, but I believe he was released. The second call came from Terry in the last town we lived in. Her son had gone to a party where allegedly adults had supplied liquor. When he didn't arrive home at a reasonable time, she went looking for him. She found him outside the house where the party was, in bushes, surrounded by other kids. She doesn't know how he came to be under the outside bushes. He was lifeflighted to a Pittsburgh hospital where he needed a breathing machine. No one yet knows the story of how he came to be in this situation, Terry said, because there were multiple stories. Both these youth came close to losing their lives. Another call came at the end of our trip. Monte accessed our messages on our home phone to find three people had left messages trying to contact me. The editor of the local section of the newspaper that I have written for for eleven years died in his sleep at the age of 54 from heart problems. I will truly miss Jerry, took over the editorship about 2003. The final tragedy has been on the national news for over a week. The unique thunder-snow in the Buffalo, New York area hit the night before we were to travel to my sister's home in Lancaster. Reports on the news and from family and friends say the hard-hit towns around Buffalo looked like a bomb or a tornado hit. I'll write about this in more depth on another day. Four tragedies within the 24 day period we were on the road, stories shared while we were traveling. I pray for the recovery of the two youths, for Jerry's family and for all the victims of the thunder-snow-storm. | 
