My first story was one of my best. In English 101 we were assigned to write a story. I was excited because I already had it one in mind. It was a true happening which I had some inside knowledge that other people couldn’t have known.
I got a low grade and never wrote another story. Until in my seventies a brilliant pastor announced a course on story writing. There were only two there that night, I and a 17 year old boy but we began writing stories to each other. I found I enjoy writing and always have a couple stories in my head. This is that story.
One cold November morning as I entered the cow stable and flipped on the lights the radio came on and they were giving the news. A teenage boy had killed a State Trooper just south of Auburn, Indiana, on Indiana 427. The trooper was working an accident helping someone out of a car. A teenage boy sideswiped them, and the trooper was killed.
A day later when they announced the names, the boy was a school chum from grade school. He was raised Amish but apparently had turned over and bought a car. I waited a week and then went to talk to him. He was quite remorseful. He had gone to a bar that Saturday night and coming home was probably drunk and the lites apparently confused him. Now Sam was facing a trial and probably jail time.
The trooper had been called away from his daughters 8th birthday party. The call went out as they were eating supper, and he was the nearest, so he took it. He promised his daughter he would be back in an hour and they would have her party. Her daddy never came back.
“A little girl was waiting for her daddy one day, It was time to meet him when he heard her mamma say: Daddy’s gone to heaven, please do not cry. Someday we’ll meet him in the sky”
I later learned that Sam had joined the army, in lieu of doing jail time. Sam served 3 years and was a free man. A little girl grew up without a father. I had heard her mother remarried, but I lost contact at that point. A terrible accident and a teenagers’ mistake. Life goes on and no one can change what happened.
This story happened when I was in high school. The little girl would be nearing 80 years old. Much of her life story has been told. The mother would have passed and gone to meet her husband in heaven.
Please indulge an old man. Students, find something you can excel in. Try everything you can, and find something that you enjoy doing. Perhaps sports, cooking, maybe even writing. All of us have different abilities and sometimes it takes a lifetime to find them. Teachers, when a student does something noteworthy, be ready to give them praise. If a student makes an honest effort, this in itself is worthy of praise.
“How far is heaven? When can I go? To see my daddy, he’s there I know”
How far is Heaven by Kathy Kane.
—James Neuhouser
