Jewells of Thought

All week long I have been intently observing three different scenarios. The first being my younger brother. Then the news that nearly brought me to tears with Daniel Penny’s acquittal. The last one didn’t hit me until Monday night, but I knew the date was coming fast.

Monday the not guilty verdict was what America needed to hear. I also needed to hear it and felt such relief when the text reached my screen. After what happened last week I had a bad feeling it would go in Bragg’s favor. Thank God it did not. Then that same afternoon we got confirmation my brother was indeed coming home.

A lot of emotions to digest and dissect. Penny’s case should never have made it to a court; knowing the jurors were in full agreement that day to acquit was a shift for America not to mention New York City. I understand mental illness and its effects on the person’s family as well as on themselves, but Penny was looking at the facts in front of him not the color of the man’s skin. Jordan Neely was his own worst enemy and his family was nowhere in sight yet they now want to pursue civil litigation with Penny. The bystanders were his main focus on that subway. I have seen and felt threatened by a person with mental illness it is a very scary place to be alone with someone like that when they are bigger than you especially for a woman. Neely was making threats though and made this worse for the bystanders.

Monday night I wrote about Grandpa’s death. I’m emotional so it seems like the tears never ever dry up even all these years later. Bryan likes to remind me there’s no reason to cry; easily said by a man. Too bad he’s not here to kiss away those tears in time, God’s time, he will be.

Penny made another extraordinary decision. He chose Judge Jeanine Pirro; one of my favorite co-hosts on the ‘The Five’ to be the one person he felt he could trust with his one and only interview. He could not have chosen a better person. She was one of his biggest defenders although everyone on ‘The Five’ believed his case should not have made it to a courtroom.

There have been some conflicting emotions while watching the news clips the last few days and remembering details from 25 years ago. Having your loved one home doesn’t always equate to them being themselves again all of a sudden. We have learned that over the years. There is a period of getting used to being home and getting used to new medicines.

Now Danny Penny is a name known to America. His privacy is gone because of this game the DA tried to play. This wasn’t a game to Penny though it was life and death, something he was trained for and willing to sacrifice his for on the battlefield. Watching some of the clips from his interview have left me with wet eyes. Saying he wanted to hug the jurors and that he would have felt guilty if he had done nothing and let something happen. After Pearl Harbor I think Papaw Leo had some of that spirit that Penny has shown.

Today I had the last of my 6 therapy sessions. I know there are no coincidences in life. God is omniscient. Twenty-five years ago Leo Bishop died in Greene County General Hospital. For the first time in 25 years I was in that very same hospital this morning. I saw Papaw Leo for the last time alive on Friday the day before the Saturday Cantata at Pleasantville all hooked up to the machine in the ICU. Why do these little details remain in my mind? Why can’t I forget and move on is it because of the historian in me! Always wanting to remember where I came from and the people who made me what I am.

It’s remarkable to me how God works. Last year when I had that accident near Hickory Cemetery made me do some soul searching and then Aunt Carol’s death made me actually make some bigger decisions. These little details, just like Grandpa’s death, brought me to intriguing places I could not have imagined on my own.

What journey has God brought you through? Are there battle scars that will forever remind you of the challenges and moments that were necessary to get where you are!