I thought i would post an update about my cousin Jane’s murder case. The man who killed her was sentenced today. I was going to just put the link on Facebook, but I know there are some folks who read my blog who aren’t on Facebook, and also, I just felt like i needed to write a little about it. I haven’t written about it all very much, but it is one of those things that stays with you, and reminds you that there is true evil in the world.
I know that will sound hokey, and i hope that if it does, you will never know what it feels like to have it touch your life, and that you can continue to think there is no such thing as evil. I hope you never experience the equivalent of being unable to put away leftovers in your own home without thinking of your cousin’s murder. I hope you never have to get a call and hear a loved one’s voice as they try to tell you what happened, or look in their eyes and see the complete shock and disbelief. I hope you never have to wait years to see one iota of justice, and i hope you never have to truly know what you really, deep down, when put in the situation, think of the Death Penalty. I hope you never have to sit in a courtroom with the person accused of killing your loved one, or know what it’s like to see him living and breathing while you look at coroner’s drawings of your loved one. I hope you never know this much about damn zip ties.
That stuff goes away most of the time, but then every once in a while it comes at you, and you still just can’t believe it is real and not some CSI Miami show.
It is truly magnificent, though, that when you see someone lost so suddenly and in such a tragic, violent way, that you are also reminded of how many lives they touched, how much of an impact each and every one of us can have on one another, and of how strong people can be in the face of unspeakable circumstances.
I will take away from this my wonderful memories of my cousin, of time spent in her warm, cozy home, of the wonderful weekend i spent with her when i was in college and visited for a weekend, of the time she and her brother, Finley, and Mom and I sat up until 3 in the morning and i wrote down every story they told, and of the times we spent with her when I was a child at my grandma’s apartment. I will never forget the last time I saw her, on Mother’s Day two years ago, when she gave my mom, Sister, and I the pleasure of her company for Mother’s Day Lunch. She was one of a kind. And as Rachel so eloquently says, she definitely “told it like it was.”
Some things run in families.
That is one other thing i will take away from this: I am so proud of my cousins for the way they have handled themselves throughout this all. I come from some strong people. Some damn strong people.
Chattanooga news story featuring my cousin Rachel, Jane’s granddaughter
The most recent post by my cousin on Justice for Jane.
Thanks to everyone who still continues to pray for my family and keep us in your thoughts, and who continue to ask for updates on the case, and who never met my cousins, but ask after them with true and genuine concern, and to all of the wonderful people whom I don’t even know, who take care of my cousins every day in their “real lives.” There is evil in the world, but there is also good. And i think the good always rises to meet the bad.
L-R: Cousins Nancy, John, Jane, and Virginia (my mama)
