Category Archives: People I love

The only bit of hope from tragedy

Originally published in The Evening Sun, Hanover, Pa., on Sunday, December 11, 2011

By WANDA MURREN

After my son was killed, there were no photos in this newspaper of his crushed car resting by the snapped-off utility pole.

It wasn’t that my colleagues were looking out for my sensibilities, although I was the city editor at that time. There was no photo because they were really shortstaffed that day, it being Christmas weekend and all that.

So, the next day, I decided I needed to go and see the car Ben had died in. Such encounters take place behind auto body shops, of course, oddly suitable in their ugliness, I guess.

But there I was, in a whole lot full of cold and twisted metal evidence of bad luck and bad decisions.

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The red, shiny thing in our garage

truck1There she is again, in all her shiny red and chrome glory, taking up a very big chunk of our garage.

My dad’s fire truck. I don’t suppose too many people can say that, but yes, my dad has his own fire engine. And she’s a handful.

Drives like a tank, I’m told, with something called double-clutching involved. Sucks up money about as fast as she once pumped water. And makes my dad about as happy as can be.

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