One Year Later.
Written Wednesday November 30th at 6:40 PM
One year later, the scars are still there, they always will be.
On a November 30th day I was doing my podcast preparing for the first games of the Girls Basketball season. The podcast went very well but after the podcast driving home something wasn’t right on that day.
As I went toward Lake Orion High School to prepare for Girls Basketball, I saw numerous police cars heading north on M-24. I saw Lake Orion on lockdown. I wondered why the school went on lockdown so I talked to Safe-Ed, the Lake Orion security crew. I knew everyone there and also some officers from the Oakland County Police Department, I didn’t understand the police cars and why the school was on lockdown.
After that my heart sank that day when I talked to my friend and coach Carl Barnes.
He said that there was a shooting at Oxford High School.
As I was trying to gather information, I talked to Lake Orion Athletic Director and varsity football coach Chris Bell and Girls Basketball Coach Bob Brydges and they were trying to gather the same information as I was. We’re we going to play that night???
As I listened to the radio before heading to Grand Blanc for a girls freshman game there was an uneasiness hearing that four people lost their lives. I called my father and my OAA Now co-host Ian Locke to see if they were all right and ask if they had heard anything.
As the game went on, all I can think about was what happened, who could had done this, and why in our community. Then the game was over and was on my way to Rochester Hills Lutheran Northwest.
It got worse.
As I arrived to Rochester Hills Lutheran Northwest for the junior varsity and varsity games, my good friend Ted Rydquist told me one of the fallen was Tate Myre. That’s when my heart really sank. Myre the same player whom was Oxford’s best player, someone I’ve seen since his days in youth football, I didn’t think that he would be one of the victims.
As the games ended, I sat at home numb going through all the emotions of that day. I then found out about the three others who passed away were including Hana St. Juliana another one that I knew very well. I remember seeing her playing in the girls basketball summer leagues and while she was on the bench and I was at the scorer’s table we talked about my sausage pasta dish. I suggested to her to make it and try it along with her friends, sister, and parents. She told me she would do it.
As the next few days came, I went to Chicago Brothers Pizza to be with my friend Dan Brown. His son Alec I know very well as I know a few within the Oxford community. I did a special podcast tribute to the four who lost their lives on that dark day.
A year has passed and I can sense the presence of the four whom aren’t with us. Their physical selves aren’t with us but their spirits will always be there whether it is Tate’s love for football and wrestling to Hana’s sweetness and kindness whether on the volleyball and especially girls basketball court. I didn’t know Justin Shilling that well but I heard he was a great bowler. Madisyn Baldwin whom I also did not know well either but heard she wanted to be an artist and also wanted help those especially in need whom has autism. I didn’t know also that Baldwin transferred to Oxford from Clarkston.
The four lives will never be forgotten. Things will heal in time but the scars will be there, they will always be there.
My Oxford tribute podcast.
https://soundcloud.com/user-539915961/oaa-now-special-oxford-tribute