Pilgrims' Home

I remember trying to understand tragedy when Greg Fast committed suicide during 8th grade and when a football teammate JEremy was killed by his friends in late high school. These were friends, who lost their lives too early. I remember attending their funerals and shedding tears without detailed reason, save the absence of people who should not be gone. I remember when Greg Fast died that I wanted to see his mom, and that I wanted to be sure others were not treated as Greg was (had Greg not died, he may have been a professional athlete). I remember calling his mom every few weeks to say I was thinking of her and remembering Greg. For Eric McGinnis, his friends arrived on his mother's front yard irate, and understandably so. THey were convinced, and the rapid spread of rumors affirmed, that St. Joe was up to this killing. They shared their rage on her front step, hoping for Ms. Ruth to come outside and confirm their rage by inviting them to enter St. Joe and seek revenge. She did...

Chapter 4 - Family I began reading the chapter wondering how Kolowitz would unfold "family", the chapter's title. Eric McGinnis was the only child to his mother, Ruth, and his father lived elsewhere in BEnton Harbor. Family was not nuclear, but it was also not volatile. I wondered how the relationships would receive their first introduction. Even more, as I began reading the chapter, I was reminded of the several children I have known who died before their parents - something that shapes my imagination for parenting Micah and Madeline. The chapter paints the story of how Ruth discovered the death of her son, and the affects on the policeman (Jim Reeves) and her other family members. The chapter wraps up with the following quotation, which unsettles my being as I think about being a father; I found myself in grief for Ruth, even on this day - 15+ years later, as the loss of a child is a loss to our entire being forever: "What really bothered me was that Ruth was...