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In One Bright Flash (article)
In one bright flash, everything changed. A young life was extinguished and countless others were left forever scared. The illusion of safety was shattered. One small community was shaken to its core and forever deeply impacted. The events of that day would have a profound impact on the path my life took and the person I would become. It would shape me as a writer and give my life a direction it would not have otherwise had. Violence had already played a part in my life before I was even born, and again in my childhood.
Late Sunday afternoon in August, a normal evening service at my local Baptist church would develop into anything but normal. On this evening, the community would be rocked to its core by the brutal murder of one of the church’s fourteen-year-old members. A real shining light in the small community would be snuffed out without warning. Jealousy and anger would boil over with fatal consequences. Two lives would be lost on this day, one to death and the other to the consequences of their actions.
At the time of this horrible event, I was already experiencing my parents divorcing and my father doing everything he could to make my life as unstable and miserable as he could. My world had been turned upside down from having to leave the only home I’d ever known to live with my maternal grandmother. I loved my grandmother with all my heart and if it hadn’t…
