A Bad Week for STL

Saturday, August 11, 2007 our friend Dan was killed at his and Courtney's home on the North side of the city. It crushed us all, his neighbors, friends and fellow SLU alums. It has devastated his family, including Courtney, his siblings, his parents, Courtney's siblings, their nieces and nephews and their closest friends Tony and Julie. It remains unsolved. The wake and funeral were terribly sad, but also wonderfully carried out by people who took time from their own grief to help out, or people who might have only known the grieving family peripherally but who just felt that helping out was the right thing to do. More distant friends sent money to cover costs of food for the funeral luncheon, sent money in Dan's name to a trust that will cover (hopefully) the costs of others continuing Dan's work for a long, long time, and sent their best wishes from all over the country and the world. There was a condolence notice sent from the United Nations office in Kabul, Afghanistan. Mark Chmiel gave a beautiful, sad reflection at the funeral that is posted here.

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Four days later, a 22 year old St. Louis police officer was shot and killed in North City and a 15 year old has subsequently been arrested for the murder. The young officer was from the area he was patrolling and had requested to be assigned there so that he could be a "role model" for youth in his home neighborhood. His photo looks like the face of a child with his dad's uniform and oversized police hat. It is said that the 15 year old planned to kill a cop, any cop would do and so he got a gun and did just that.

Finally, 24 hours after Officer Brown's death, St. Alphonsus Rock church burned after being struck by lightning. It is a St. Louis city institution, a Catholic church but important to many besides Catholics. Its an African-American parish, known for epic services that include dancing in the aisles, a gospel choir, tourists and visitors from all over St. Louis and the Midwest, and its incredible neighborhood outreach programs. The photos of "before" are beautiful, and the word now is that the church can be rebuilt. A drive by it shows the roof nearly completely missing, with some burnt wood protruding from what now appears to be a football-field long "skylight" at the top of the church. Very likely, its age (135+) will be its saving grace, as old construction here and in Europe has proven to be superior in withstanding flood, war, and fire to anything built today. Also, the people who love the church and make it function are resilient and still had services this past Sunday in an adjacent gym.

In 6 days, three very significant losses hit our city. It was a very bad week.

So as previously mentioned, I'm going to be an obi-san, or aunt. My sister-in-law has just crossed over into the second trimester of her pregnancy and will likely be having the first Fingerhut grandchild around my late Grandma Millie's birthday of February 13. Its very exciting for the entire family, probably especially for my parents who, like good Catholics, gave birth to 4 children relatively early in life likely expecting to also be grandparents relatively early in life. As the oldest, I have to apologize to them for not carrying out my end of the grandchild business. Fortunately, my brother has picked up the slack, married very well, and they'll be grandparents before they turn 60. That's great for them, and fun for the rest of us who get to spoil and hang with our new, half-Japanese, half-decendant of Nellie Fogarty, all Fingerhut neice or nephew. One interesting thing is that this child is destined to be 100% bilingual. That means the kid will always have a "secret language" with which to fool teachers, baby sitters, friends, and enemies growing up no matter on which continent they reside. Lucky little kids, that will only benefit them as they grow, apply for college, and seek a career path.

In Cardinal news, Rick Ankiel has returned to major league baseball in fine fashion. I don't think anyone could have predicted what he's accomplished in making it back, and no one every would have put money on his hitting a 3 run homer for the Cardinals in August of 2007.
Rob, Andrea, and I watched from Tanner B's. The entire place gave him a standing o, as did all the fans at Busch and probably people watching the game from all over the Midwest. Welcome back, Rick Ankiel. You've given us something to be excited about again.