You never know someone else's pain

Marcia, a very friendly, smiley gal, a little younger than me whom I’ve known about a decade here at Lakeside stopped by to chat on the porch, but she hadn’t heard about the death of our son Phil.  When I told her she responded that she and her husband had 2 children who’d died, a baby and a 17 year old son.  I was so shocked, since I’d never heard her mention it.  So I asked her how the 17 year old died, and she told me it had been a murder.  She then told me the details, and I was just speechless.  They live in suburban Toledo, and her son Matthew was shot and killed by a black gang member when he was at a private party in 1992. She said even almost 30 years ago the media kept the racial aspect of the murder very quiet, because the black gang had singled out all the whites in the group, beat and terrorized them, leaving all the black teens at the party alone.  The people at the party were all friends, and none knew the gang. Then within the year, both her parents died and then the murder trial started. Anyway, you just never know the grief someone else is dealing with. That will never go away. She said her other son, 11 months younger than the deceased, never really recovered as they were best friends.